Adolescents and young adults are a key and highly heterogeneous target group within vocational education and training. They will be of crucial importance for the future despite forming a relatively small section of the population in demographic terms. This issue of BWP addresses relevant findings from youth and socialisation research which are delivering important impetus for the shaping of attractive vocational training. The articles focus on the life situations and living environments of young people. They examine their future prospects, their physical and mental health and their educational and vocational orientations as well as looking at the influence exerted by vocational education and training as a socialisation space for young people.
From the BIBB
Farewell to BIBB President Friedrich Hubert Esser
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President FRIEDRICH HUBERT ESSER officially retired on 16 June 2026 after over 15 years at the head of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. Around 150 guests from the fields of policy making, trade and industry, academic research, VET practice and society came together at BIBB in order to look back at his long-standing service and at shared experiences during his presidency.
Special Focus
What drives young people, and what impact do they wish to make?
An interview with representatives from youth associations and organisations
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Adolescents and young adults are a key target group within vocational education and training. But are their perspectives and concerns recognised appropriately? What topics are important to young people? What are their perceived stresses? How do they see their future, and what are their expectations and requirements with regard to our education and employment system? We conducted interviews on these and other topics with four young people who lend their generation a public voice in youth associations or organisations.
Gudrun Quenzel
High expectations – great uncertainty
Growing up in times of societal transformation
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Young people are growing up in a society which is characterised by technological, political and cultural change. They also need to face up to the challenges that are posed by an open and democratic society and by the increasing global interconnectedness of politics and the economy. Growing up is also shaped by both long-term and sudden crises. There is much to indicate that this has also led to an increase in requirements with regard to coping with age-specific development tasks – training, bonding, regeneration and participation. This article presents three key societal developments and discusses how these correlate with overcoming the age-specific development tasks.
Kerstin Duemmler; Alexandra Felder; Isabelle Caprani
Negotiation of occupational identity
Dealing with challenging work and training conditions
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The transition from school to vocational education and training is a focus of policy making and of academic research. However, for a long time little was known as to how young people in Switzerland experience training. Balancing the requirements of the world of work, the training conditions they encounter, and their own ideas and needs, they must develop strategies to assert themselves in everyday working life. This article thus shows how young people shape their occupational identity via resistance and distancing and by striving for autonomy rather than merely through adaptation. It also looks at the limits they encounter and at the roles played by the companies in this process.
Paul Malschinger
Constancy and change in the occupational aspirations of young people
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Youth as a phase of life is marked by numerous challenges and development tasks which require increased adaptation on the part of young people. One of these is the circumstance that young people need to select an educational (and training) pathway at an early stage, something which may influence their occupational aspirations. This article uses data from the project Pathways to the Future to investigate how the occupational aspirations of school leavers in Vienna develop after lower secondary education. An associated question is thus how these aspirations alter within the context of different educational (and training) pathways.
Severine Thomas
Well-being of adolescents and young adults under the influence of societal crises
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In the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic and other current societal crises, there is growing evidence that the well-being of many young people is being negatively affected to a greater extent. This affects physical constitution, psycho-social experiences and social aspects alike. Studies show that young people are suffering from increased stress levels and from a rise in loneliness. Such concomitant effects are leaving a mark on education and training histories, in particular including transitions to vocational education and training. Against this background, it is incumbent upon stakeholders involved with schools, training and occupations to investigate these impacts. The aim of the results from the JuCo-V Study presented in the article is to raise awareness of this.
Kristina Wopat; Anna Hetzinger; Susanne Schemmer
Mental stress at a young age – its relevance in the vocational orientation process
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Vocational orientation also takes place during a phase of life in which young people need to deal with numerous development tasks anyway. At the same time, psychological strain amongst young people is on the rise. This gives rise to the question as to whether and how such stresses may have an impact on vocational orientation processes and as to which consequences will follow for the structuring of vocational orientation provision. This article pools available findings and presents a resources-related and prevention-oriented practical example from Saxony.
Jonas Probst
Smart phones in the workplace – how trainers can get trainees to use them in a productive manner
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Virtually all young people possess a smart phone which they use daily. This often presents challenges for company-based training staff. When is use of a smart phone acceptable? When is it disruptive, and what is the appropriate response? This article addresses the issue and states possible approaches towards using smart phones in a healthy and productive way without resorting to ineffective bans or authoritarian control.
Monika Hackel
Using innovative competitions to foster a joy of discovery
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Young people enjoy competition and like to be part of something extraordinary. In times when desperate attempts are being made elsewhere to fire the enthusiasm of young people for STEM subjects and to promote future competencies, this can be the only explanation why there are high registration figures for the “Jugend forscht” (“Young researchers”) contest. The present article takes a look at the history and principles of this nationwide competition and highlights the areas of potential it offers for vocational education and training in particular. The aim is to encourage teachers and company-based training staff to support young people in VET through this stimulating world. Synergies with current future-aligned training concepts can also be revealed along the way.
From research and practice
Lukas Hobeck; Lars Otte; Marco Beeken
STEM communication bridges as an interface format between higher education, training and school
Results of an intervention study aimed at promoting career choice competency
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The transition from school to work presents major challenges for both young people and education and training stakeholders. How can young people be supported in vocational orientation and in identifying their own interests? The STEM Communication Bridges project opens up new points of access to vocational orientation via cross-institutional collaboration between universities, companies providing training and schools. The impacts of the intervention on the career choice competency of pupils are being investigated within the scope of a quantitative pre-post-study involving control groups. Differentiated effects are being shown, and these are presented in the article.
Oliver Klawitter; Kirstin von Graefe
Communication, expectations management and legal orientation in training migration
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Young people from third countries wishing to commence training in Germany require information and practical assistance. Along the way, they encounter different stakeholders and institutions offering wide varieties of support provision. Such heterogeneity within a heavily fragmented process leads to confusion and favours misconceptions. Breaches in the assistance and support afforded to these young people are revealed on the basis of a qualitative survey of experts from the fields of consultancy and administration and from recruitment agencies and further intermediary institutions. The article concludes by identifying starting points for improved process control.
Margit Ebbinghaus; Silke Hüls; Regina Dionisius
Withdrawals of training applicants
Reasons companies suspect to be behind this
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Filling training places presents challenges for many companies. This problem area is further exacerbated when applicants or even prospective trainees withdraw from the process. A survey of 377 companies providing training using the Reference Company System (RBS) investigates how frequently and when such withdrawals occur and looks at the reasons which companies suspect may be behind this. Reflection against the motives of young people shows that the assumptions of the company are not incorrect, but that they underestimate a relevant aspect of the recruitment process.
Occupations
Hannelore Mottweiler; Anke Kock
Helping to shape the mobility transition
Modernisation of the occupation of mobility and transport services clerk
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Mobility and transport services clerks advise and support customers by providing a multitude of services across public and commercial passenger transport. The task spectrum for these qualified skilled workers has altered against the background of increasing digitalisation and in the wake of the “mobility transition”. The modernisation of the training regulations takes account of the shift that has taken place in the transport industry. This is further reflected by the inclusion of the term “mobility” in the occupational title.
Profile of an occupation – carpenter
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Carpenters play an indispensable role in the construction industry. They combine traditional craft trade skills with advanced high-tech in order to make the best possible use of the versatility and sustainability of wood as a building material. This profile describes the entire scope of the modernisation of 2026 and shows the development of trainee figures in the largest training occupation in the construction industry.
The Board of BIBB
Thomas Vollmer
Report on the Board Meeting held on 27 March 2026
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The first Board Meeting of the year was chaired by INA MAUSOLF, representative of the federal states. The main focuses of this meeting were consultations on the 2026 Report on Vocational Education and Training and the difficult situation on the training market. A new sub-committee on the topic of “partial qualifications” was instigated by the Board. Recommendations were also adopted as planned for “Digital mobile training and learning” and for the “Structuring of examination requirements and instruments in training regulations”.