Chair of Business Education and Human Resource Development

"CoBALIT-Transfer of Assessments between different occupations" - funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Duration: December 2011 to May 2015)

“CoBALIT-Transfer”- Partial study "Transfer of assessment methods of other mercantile jobs and areas of activity" in the joint project CoBALIT (Competencies in the Field of Business and Administration, Learning, Instruction, and Transition); Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, December 2011 to November 2014


Brief description
In the research project CoBALIT (Competencies in the Field of Business and Administration, Learning, Instruction, and Transition) vocational competencies are measured on the basis of technological assessments for the traineeship of "industrial management assistants" and determinants of competency development evolved. The psychometric modelling of vocational competencies happens on the basis of probabilistic models in which different models are examined in respect of their goodness of fit to verify the empirical data.

The focus in the partial study of CoBALIT-Transfer is on questions whether there is a transferability of measuring instruments which have been developed for "industrial management assistants" for other traineeships in the same vocational area. Another quantitative important traineeship is in addition to the retail assistants, the office assistants and the bank and insurance clerks, the logistics manager. The latter is interesting because he has a big overlap with the industrial management assistants on the one hand and big differences in the mercantile skills on the other hand.
Besides, there are different ways of recruiting adolescents for both traineeships in terms of educational background and level of competencies in key scholastic areas. Therefore, there will be important insights into questions of realizing and transferring the measuring instruments between mercantile jobs. Primary objective of the research project CoBALIT-Transfer is to find mutual competency areas in both traineeships, in addition to the test instruments for industrial management assistants, plus the development and testing of job related tasks for logistics manager whether the key mercantile requirements in different economic contexts are relevant in different jobs.The specific objectivity is the focus during psycometric modelling.

Publications and Presenations

  • Seeber, Susan (2017). Economic competencies and situation specific commercial competencies: reflections on conceptualization and measurement. Journal of Citizenship, Social and Economic Education, Vol 15 (3), 162-182.
  • Seeber, Susan & Rudeloff, Michelle (2017). Förderung von beruflichen Kompetenzen und deren Diagnostik. In Elisabeth Schlemmer, Lothar Kuld & Andreas Lange (Hrsg.), Jugend und Demografie – Chancen und Risiken für Berufswahl, Familien- und Lebensplanung (S. 172-187). Landsberg: Beltz/Juventa-Verlag.
  • Winther, Esther, Seeber, Susan, Festner, Dagmar, Sangmeister, Julia & Liedtke, Michelle (2016). Large Scale-Assessments in der kaufmännischen Berufsbildung (CoBALIT). In F. Oser, M. Landenberger & K. Beck (Hrsg.), Technologiebasierte Kompetenzmessung in der beruflichen Bildung – Resultate aus dem Forschungsprogramm ASCOT (S. 55-73). Bielefeld: Bertelsmann.



Project Head

  • Prof. Dr. Susan Seeber (Georg-August-University of Göttingen)



Project Staff

  • Michelle Liedtke



Joint Project Partners

  • Network Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Esther Winther (University of Paderborn)
  • Prof. Dr. Susanne Weber (Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich)
  • Prof. Dr. Clemens Draxler (Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich)
  • Prof. Dr. Martin Baethge (Sociological Research Institute e.V. at Georg-August-University of Göttingen).
  • Prof. Dr. Franz Eberle (University of Zürich)
  • Prof. Dr. Stephan Schumann (University of Fribourg)