Lernausgangslagen Auszubildender in Berufen mit hohen mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Anforderungen

The question of the level of young adults´ competencies when entering vocational education and training (VET) becomes more and more relevant through the establishment of large-scale assessments and national educational standards. To date, there is only little empirical evidence about trainees´ competencies entering VET. We investigated trainees´ mathematics and science competencies using tests for the evaluation of the national educational standards. Our sample of N = 2521 trainees comprised technicians, industrial clerks and laboratory assistants. First, we analyzed the average competencies controlling for highest graduation and compared these scores with reference values from a national assessment study. The trainees reached quite high competencies. Thereby, trainees with a non-academic track graduation where above the reference values, whereas trainees with academic track graduation reached about the same competencies as the reference sample. Moreover, we found that trainees chose the field of vocation in view of to personal strength and weaknesses.