Shaping the future: New ways of career orientation for students in Lower Saxony

Shaping the future: New ways of career orientation for students in Lower Saxony

In the context of vocational orientation at vocational schools in Lower Saxony, the project “Additional vocational orientation at Lower Saxony public vocational schools” (BO-BBS) ends in December 2024. This project, which was funded as part of the federal-state educational chain agreement, had significant contributions from the Vocational and business education at the University of Osnabrück. The result of the project, the handout “Career Orientation at Vocational Schools”, is aimed specifically at students in full-time, non-vocational training courses.

The central aim of this initiative is to help young people actively shape their professional future. Towards the end of their school years, many students are unsure about their career choices. A lack of overview of career prospects and the influence of unconscious gender stereotypes make this process even more difficult. The handout offers practical, tested and scientifically evaluated modules and materials to improve professional orientation.

Practical approaches to support

In order to implement career orientation sustainably at vocational schools, the handout contains recommendations that are intended to support schools and non-school partners in the career search process. 18 Lower Saxony vocational schools and over 2,000 students took part in the test phase. The results of the accompanying research show that the students were able to gain more confidence in their career choice through the modules provided and that the materials were rated as helpful.

The goals of the broader educational chain initiative, which was launched in 2010 BMBF The aim of the project was to support young people in entering professional life and to combat the shortage of skilled workers. The initiative includes various actors, including the BMBF, BMAS, federal states, employment agencies, municipalities and schools.

Diverse career orientation programs

An important element in career orientation are program offerings such as the potential analysis in the 7th grade and the practice-oriented career orientation days in the 8th grade. The focus here is on the talents, strengths and interests of young people. The practice-oriented days take place at extracurricular learning locations and are led by trainers who help the young people formulate development goals.

In addition, projects such as “VerOnika up!” funded that are specifically aimed at MINT areas and social professions. Initiatives such as the career choice pass and the digital career choice app enable the collection and structuring of relevant documents for career orientation. These instruments have been established for over 20 years and are used from the 7th grade onwards.

The support goes beyond the classic measures. The BOFplus program aims to support people with refugee and migration experience through practical career orientation and job-related language lessons. The KAUSA state offices are also active in this regard, advising young people with a migrant background when starting training.

In addition, the voluntary training support “VerAplus” has been in operation since 2008 and has already supported over 22,000 young people with difficulties at vocational school or in the company. Digital career orientation with Zynd is an innovative approach that uses playful elements to address career choices and enable networking with educational professionals.

The multi-layered support of young people in Lower Saxony is promoted through events and platforms such as “#AusbildungSTARTEN”, which offer support with career orientation and bring training companies and young people together during the campaign period from May to October. This interface between schools, training companies and young people forms the basis for a successful transition into the professional world.

Overall, the handout and the associated programs show how important well-founded and comprehensive professional orientation is in order to give young people the necessary clarity and security on their professional path. The results of the handout were presented at a conference at the BBS Multimedia in Hanover on November 27, 2024 and are freely available via the repository of the University of Osnabrück.