‘How’ and ‘why’ cannot be separated: empirical insights into the company-based part of apprenticeship training in Austria

ABSTRACT

In Austria, binding training objectives are defined for the company-based part of dual training (approximately 70–80 per cent of total training time), but there are scarcely any normative specifications on how these are to be achieved and there is no systematic quality assurance of the practice. The conditions under which vocational training occurs in the company have also scarcely been studied scientifically. Against this background, two surveys (of training companies and apprentices) were used to empirically investigate how vocational learning is specifically designed in Austrian training companies. The results show that the Austrian dual apprenticeship training model can be described primarily as a model of youth employment and secondarily as a training model. But it addresses the two goals of social participation and skill acquisition in an interlocked way. The variance of designs of the company practice is closely linked to the differing motives of the training companies. Based on these results, conclusions are drawn for vocational training policy, educational practice and relevant research, which take up the empirical connection found between a work design conducive to learning and the concrete company design of apprenticeship.

KEYWORDS:

• Apprenticeship training
• vocational training
• quality of vocational training
• motivations of training companies
• professional skill development
• Austria

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Cronbach’s alpha is a measure of the internal consistency of a scale and denotes the extent to which the items or questions on a scale are related or independent of one another. In simplified terms, the value can be interpreted in such a way that the closer it comes to 1, the higher the reliability of an instrument or test. Values from 0.7 are considered acceptable and above that as good.