Main Content
Session Information
02 SES 02 A, Career Choice and Transitions from School to VET
Paper Session
Contribution
Entering Vocational Education and Training used to be the educational pathway of choice for the majority of German adolescents after finishing compulsory education (cf. Dionisius et al., 2015). However, recently more and more young people turn to other educational alternatives like continuing school in order to achieve a university entrance certificate (ibid.). Against this background, employers offering apprenticeships increasingly face difficulties when recruiting applicants. In this context it is unfortunate if pupils who are initially interested in beginning an apprenticeship right after finishing compulsory education change their mind and are, for the time being, lost for the VET market as prospective apprentices. Hence, it is important for employers to know which factors are responsible for the adolescents’ change of mind to take these into account when recruiting applicants for their apprenticeship places. Therefore this contribution seeks to identify characteristics of adolescents at the end of compulsory education who plan to begin an apprenticeship and additionally to uncover variables that distinguish between those that stick with this educational plan and those that change their mind in the course of their last school year and instead continue with school.
Ample theoretical work and research exist on factors affecting educational and vocational choices. This contribution assumes that these factors also have an influence on whether a pupil modifies his educational plans in the course of his vocational orientation process. One line of research focuses on young people’s interests (e.g. Holland, 1997), values, expectations and self-concepts (cf. Leung, 2008). Sociological research examines social influences like expectations of the social environment towards appropriate behaviours and choices of young people socialised in that environment (cf. Bourdieu 1987). Parents’ ambitions for their children to achieve at least the same social status that they hold also influences young people’s educational decisions (cf. Boudon 1974), for example in the form of striving for a higher school leaving certificate. However, in a market-based VET system like Germany, the choice for an apprenticeship is not independent of (anticipated) institutional restrictions like the lack of supply of available apprenticeship places (cf. Heinz & Krüger, 1985). Despite a less tight apprenticeship market in recent years young people still face difficulties in transitioning into apprenticeships immediately after finishing compulsory education. Employers tend to be picky when selecting their future apprentices in spite of the recruiting problems mentioned above. Pupils who are aware of these difficulties might reconsider their intentions to search for an apprenticeship and instead continue their education at school to improve their chances for an apprenticeship place later on. Career orientation measures might also affect the adolescent’s expectancy for success regarding his educational pathway of choice. According to expectancy-value theory (e.g. Wigfield & Eccles, 2000), both the value of an option and the expectancy for success a person holds regarding this option determine whether it is chosen. Educational choices thus often represent a compromise between aspirations and genuine options, entailing young people to changing their intentions over the course of time. Furthermore, intentions are not always automatically turned into action (Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2010). This contribution therefore not only focuses on the change of educational plans in the course of the last schoolyear, but takes a longitudinal perspective by relating it to the actual educational choice made after that schoolyear.
It is expected that the plan of beginning an apprenticeship as well as a change of this plan in the course of time are related to 1) sociodemographic variables, 2) personal factors (e.g. school performance, self-concepts), 3) aspects of the social environment, and 4) variables pertaining to the vocational orientation process, including perceptions of chances of success in the apprenticeship market.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Blossfeld, H.-P., Roßbach, H.-G., & von Maurice, J. (Eds.). (2011). Education as a lifelong process: The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) [Special Issue]. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 14. Blossfeld, H.-P., von Maurice, J., & Schneider, T. (2011). In H.-P. Blossfeld, H.-G. Roßbach & J. von Maurice (Eds.), Education as a lifelong process: The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) [Special Issue]. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 14, 5-17. Boudon, R. (1974). Education, opportunity and social inequality. Changing prospects in Western society. New York: Wiley. Bourdieu, P. (1987). Sozialer Sinn. Kritik der theoretischen Vernunft. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp. Dionisius R., Illiger A., Schier F. (2015). Die integrierte Ausbildungsberichterstattung im Überblick. In Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (Ed.), Datenreport zum Berufsbildungsbericht 2015: Informationen und Analysen zur Entwicklung der beruflichen Bildung (p. 255-269). Bonn Heckhausen, J. & Heckhausen, H. (2010). Motivation und Handeln: Einführung und Überblick. In J. Heckhausen und H. Heckhausen (Eds.), Motivation und Handeln (p. 1-9). Berlin: Springer. Heinz, W.R., Krüger, H., Rettke, U., Wachtveitl, E., & Witzel, A. (1985). “Hauptsache eine Lehrstelle”. Jugendliche vor den Hürden des Arbeitsmarktes. Weinheim: Beltz. Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices. A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3 ed.). Odessa, Florida: Psychological Assessment Resources. Leung, A. S. (2008). The Big Five Career Theories. In J. A. Athanasou & R. Van Esbroeck (Hrsg.), International Handbook of Career Guidance (p. 115-132). Springer Science+Business Media B.V. Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000). Expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 68-81.
Programme by Networks, ECER 2021
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
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Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
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