What trainees need to achieve in the company in linguistic and communicative terms

The ability to deal with language in an adequate way is viewed as fundamental to the acquisition of employability skills and to the performance of occupational activities. But what are the linguistic and communicative requirements that trainees need to master in company-based training? This article takes the occupations of management assistant for retail services and vehicle mechatronics technician as examples in order to illustrate the respective typical language and communication demands in the company and to show that there are considerable differences between occupations. The results emphasise just how important the development of language and communication competencies is for vocational education and training.