“Giving everyone a chance” – support for disadvantaged young people develops from a pilot project to mainstream support

A pilot project launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBW) in 1980 adopted a socio-pedagogically oriented approach to vocational education and training. Alignment to competencies rather than to deficits, social learning, integrative language support and target group-appropriate methodology and didactics are all specific hallmarks of this training concept that have remained relevant down to the present day for integrating young people into training. The article traces the development of this approach and illustrates how these core elements have become successfully established within the context of education and social policy (reform) endeavours.