"Doing biography" in vocational education and training - objectives and paradoxes

VET research into individual educational and occupational histories clearly reveals an ambivalence. On the one hand, the aim is to foster free individual development within the educational and employment system and to support the institutional structures that are required for this purpose. On the other hand, relevant concepts are subject to objectively logical constraints and to the prevailing conditions in the educational and employment system. This means that “doing biography” can ultimately only mean individual adaptation. Against this background, the following article investigates the objectives of VET biographical research over the last few decades and current requirements regarding occupational biography competence. It concludes by calling for a paradigm shift.