"IBIS" - Individual trajectories through prevocational, intermediate programmes: interactions between individual and social characteristics and institutional settings - funded by the German Federal M

Project duration: 01 March 2012 - 28 February 2015

Brief description
The aim of the project is to develop a theory-based and empirically tested model of the transition from general education to vocational training. For this purpose, sociological perspectives, psychological approaches as well as human capital and labor market theories will be considered. Their applicability will be examined and the significance of certain factors as well as interaction effects will be ascertained. The longitudinal study design allows taking the young people’s individual resources and attitudes into account, insofar as they are related to learning and work, to career and to performance on the job, but also to environmental factors. As there is still a significant proportion of young people entering into prevocational programs instead of proper vocational education and training, the institutional settings and development opportunities for young people in these institutions are of particular interest. These programs will be investigated in detail in the German federal states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Lower Saxony. In the first of four data collection waves of the survey, the young people’s cognitive, motivational and volitional resources, socio-economic background, vocational orientation and career interests as well as career strategies are recorded. The second wave focuses on individual skill development and on the acquisition of professional orientations within these contexts. The two remaining surveys, finally, are geared to render insights into the young people’s vocational development after completion - or premature abandonment - of the prevocational programs under scrutiny.

Publications and Presentations

• Final Report (in German)
• Behrend, Stefan, Nickolaus, Reinhold & Seeber, Susan (2017). Die Entwicklung der Basiskompetenzen im Übergangssystem. Unterrichtswissenschaft, Ausgabe 01, 51-66.
• Weisseno, Simon, Seeber, Susan, Kosanke, Janna & Stange, Constanze (2016). The development of mathematical competency in different pre-vocational training programmes of the transition system. Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training (2016) 8: 14. doi:10.1186/s40461-016-0040-

Project management:

• Prof. Dr. Susan Seeber


Project staff:


• Constanze Gruschinski M.A.
• Janna Kosanke M.A.



Project partners:


• Prof. Dr. phil. Reinhold Nickolaus, University of Stuttgart, Department of Vocational, Business and
  Engineering Education