Company-based training as an opportunity for university drop-outs

Given the emerging shortages of skilled workers in a wide range of sectors, attracting high-performing young people to VET is immensely important. One option is to systematically open up university drop-outs as a group for vocational qualification.

This target group usually has a broad spectrum of subject knowledge and skills and is available to the labour and training market at short notice. For university drop-outs, entering vocational training opens up an attractive career opportunity as an alternative to an academic career.

The transition of those switching into the VET system still requires considerable design work. University drop-outs and training companies alike need to be made more aware of each other for this pathway and to be informed and advised accordingly.

The project therefore defines the following objectives and approaches:

• Networking the various stakeholders and institutions of VET and higher education

• Early recruitment of university drop-outs for vocational training by developing and realising information and guidance structures at higher education institutions, and raising awareness of VET among higher education institutions

• Designing the interface between academic and vocational education to enable university drop-outs a smooth transition with little loss of time; to this end, the networked stakeholders must develop joint strategies

• Institutionalising advisory services for university drop-outs at the chambers or education providers

• Systematically opening up SMEs to this group of applicants with the aim of integrating them into vocational training as a contribution to securing the regional supply of skilled workers. The project partners contact SMEs, inform them about the potential of university drop-outs and assist in matching them precisely

In the course of the project, guidance and integration structures for attracting university drop-outs and transferring them into company-based training are realised and institutionally implemented together with the stakeholders involved (higher education institutions, the employment agency, chambers, sector representatives, the district craft trades association), and developed and tested instruments are provided that can be used as a resource for the labour market region after the end of the funding period. As part of the networking with the relevant cooperation partners, the consortium partners will organise an intensive exchange of information on the project initiatives and results. The dissemination and sustainability of the tested recruitment strategy is additionally secured through the involvement of the consortium partners in the State Committee for Vocational Education and Training and the State Committee for Continuing Education.

By networking relevant stakeholders and institutions to attract university drop-outs as apprentices for SMEs and to anchor the recruitment and integration approach developed, the project contributes in the medium term to improving the current situation in the training market. In the long term, the project affects training structures by opening up a new group of applicants. It thereby helps to secure the supply of skilled workers and strengthens the competitiveness of individual SMEs. Furthermore, the project promotes permeability between the two systems of higher education and VET in both directions.