Die Strategie für das Lebenslange Lernen ... - EUROlocal

68
TRANSITIONS, INTERLOCKING AND PERMEABILITY OF EDUCATIONAL DOMAINS
Learning Region Kassel City and Kassel Rural District (Hesse)
The “Vocational Godparent” Model to ease the transition
from school to work
I. Problem
The Kassel region suffers from a chronic shortage of jobs and
training places on the one hand, and an increasingly
detailed spectrum of different occupational profiles on the
other. In particular, students from special schools and from
non-academic secondary schools often leave without the
necessary equipment to make an informed career choice.
II. Solution approach
For the reasons stated above, new possibilities of vocational
orientation are being tried out for various types of school in
the educational and vocational spheres in the City of Kassel
and in Kassel Rural District. In particular, an attempt is
being made to establish a “joined-up” approach. One aspect
of this approach is the “vocational godparent” model, in
which committed individuals, working on a voluntary basis,
provide assistance to school students as the latter seek to
determine their vocational orientation.
School students who still have no idea of the career they
wish to pursue, or who receive no support in this matter
from their parents, are assigned a “vocational godparent”.
These individuals support the young people with practical
tips and contacts, e.g. when seeking a training place, when
getting their application forms together, or when preparing
for job interviews. The “vocational godparents” however
also teach craft skills in workshops, factories or schools, run
small projects in the immediate vicinity, or keep an eye on
the young people while at work. It goes without saying that
in the process they also give the young people insights into
their own career experience and values.
We in turn support the “vocational godparents” by giving
them a specialist induction (e.g. in insurance questions)
and by making arrangements with the school in question. In
addition, we organize regular exchanges of experience
between all our voluntary workers. In particular the professional
staff of the Young People’s Careers Advisory Centres
run by the City and Rural District Councils are always available
to answer questions and provide support when problems
occur.
In the past, “vocational godparents” have succeeded, as a
result of their commitment, in actually finding training
places for individual young people. The success of the
scheme can also be explained by the fact that for the young
people, the “godparents” are largely “neutral parties” to
whom they can talk easily, people who are devoting time to
them of their own free will.
Among the results of our project so far is that we have
been able to raise an awareness in all concerned of new
paths in vocational orientation and of the great variety of
conceivable activities which can be carried out on a jointly
agreed basis.
III. Outlook
The “vocational godparent” model is integrated into a nexus
of further activities in the area of transition between school
and work (such as the “Career Café” or the training of teachers
in this field). All the activities receive academic flanking
from the University of Kassel and are intended (both as individual
modules and in their entirety) to have an exemplary
character for other schools in the region.
The “vocational godparent” model is increasingly being
transferred to the responsibility of the professional staff
engaged in career advice for young people, but without
thereby calling into question, on the part of any of those
involved, the link with the Learning Region: City and Rural
District of Kassel network and comprehensive project.
Results to date have awakened the interest of local politicians
in the city and rural district, and secured their interest
in keeping alive, and further developing, the activities of the
scheme.
www.lernende-region-kassel.de