Defining and shaping vocational orientation as part of the educational mandate

Dear readers,

The situation in the German training market is characterised by growing problems in matching supply and demand. This is apparent from the rising number of unplaced applicants and unfilled training places, but also from cases where choices of occupations and training courses have been made without adequate information and with little enthusiasm. Early dissolution of training contracts is one of the consequences. Hence, increased provision of vocational orientation and better coordination of the different initiatives and models are regarded as ways of ensuring better matching, although little is known about their impacts as yet.

Step up cooperation with parents and companies

A review of the existing studies brings one recurrent fact to light: professional offers of vocational orientation by schools and the vocational guidance service play quite a marginal role in career choice, in young people’s eyes. The greatest influences come from parents and from talking to family members, friends and acquaintances. This does not necessarily imply any disparagement of professional offers. Far rather, it indicates that young people really prefer to discuss the matter with their parents. Strategic concepts for vocational orientation should follow through on this conclusion and build in more parental involvement.

Practical placement phases in the workplace are an important element of vocational orientation. Nowadays these are integrated into almost every form of schooling – even, to a growing extent, the university-track grammar schools. The available findings suggest that young people very much appreciate work placements, particularly if the process enables them to find out about one or more occupations – which is what happens, for instance, in the vocational orientation programme of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Work placements also offer the opportunity to make contact with a potential training firm, or – from the companies' perspective – to get to know potential applicants. So far, the opportunities they hold out are not being fully exploited. There is not sufficient supervision by the schools or systematic preparation and follow-up of the work placement phases. Room for improvement is also noted in the organisation and supervision within companies.

Extending vocational orientation beyond lower secondary level

Vocational orientation provision begins in the final grades of lower secondary education. The majority of transitions into initial vocational training take place very much later, however. Trainees entering a skilled occupation today are around 20 years old on average. As a consequence, continuous input and support should be provided for the process of career choice and vocational integration. Vocational orientation must therefore extend beyond schools of general education and encompass vocational schooling, particularly the programmes of the transition system.

These days the majority of school pupils in Germany attend a grammar school and obtain a higher education entrance qualification. For the same reason, vocational orientation can no longer be merely a task of lower secondary education. The grammar schools are called upon just as much to prepare pupils to make decisions and opt for initial vocational training and/or a degree programme. The important thing is that different forms of vocational orientation provision should be oriented to young people’s specific interests and needs, whatever they may be. They must not be misunderstood as an instrument for pushing young people too hastily into the initial vocational training options that are available in the region. Priority must therefore be given to making a contribution to the educational mandate, i.e. imparting knowledge about the world of business, work and careers; creating the prerequisites for making competent and self-determined choices of subsequent educational and training pathways; and unlocking young people’s potential.

REINHOLD WEIß

Professor Dr., Deputy President and Head of the Research at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Bonn

Translation from the German original (published in BWP 1/2014): Deborah Shannon, Academic Text & Translation, Norwich