Future Check
The workshop "Future Check" is aimed at students (15/16 years) of the Polytechnic School with special support needs in order to increase the chances for a direct transition from school to work.
Background
The city of Bregenz has a high proportion of socioeconomically burdened families. In 2020, the proportion of students with non-German colloquial language at elementary and secondary schools was over 70 percent. A large proportion of these students choose to attend a polytechnic school (PTS) at the end of their compulsory education, with the aim of starting an apprenticeship afterwards. 219 students attended the PTS in Bregenz in 2019.
The one-year polytechnic school is used intensively in Vorarlberg and Austria to introduce young people to vocational training and give them time for orientation.
Youth coaches and school social workers are on duty at the school to provide students with targeted support in choosing a career, applying for jobs and in difficult phases of life.
Despite these services, the percentage of students who did not find an apprenticeship at the end of the 2020 school year was 20 percent. Approximately 40 students repeated the PTS for another year.
Aims of the workshop
- Gather students' experiences from school and with existing support services
- Strengthen students' motivation and self-confidence
- Students reflect on their own situation, name competencies, define goals and plan further steps
- Perceive problems and current situation
- Identify potential for improvement
- Recognize own competencies
- Exchange about useful support in the transition from the polytechnic school to apprenticeship training
- Show real career opportunities
- Offer solutions
- Build trust, provide orientation
- Develop a broad perspective on offers and educational paths
- Practice job interviews
Description
The target group are students who have not found an apprenticeship after finishing school at the PTS and repeat the class. The reasons for this are manifold: weak academic performance, lack of basic skills, language difficulties, little family support, being overwhelmed by the application process, experiences of discrimination, frustration after late rejections of applications, discouragement and lack of motivation due to repeating the school class.
Implementation
The 2-day Future Check workshop was implemented for the first time in July 2020 in cooperation with the City of Bregenz (Society and Social Affairs), the school and the DuALPlus project. It is a voluntary and free offer for 8-10 students per workshop, during school hours and takes place outside of school in a public space.
Contents:
Day 1 Analysis Phase
The students talk about their personal life situations, how they are doing and where they stand: Family situation, caregivers, school career, hobbies and talents.
Describe previous experiences and adventures in the context of school, the school subject career orientation, career ideas, career orientation days (taster days in companies), job applications and interviews. What did I learn? What did I find easy, what didn't? What supported me? What moved me?
Day 2 Synthesis Phase
In the group, suggestions for improvement are collected with regard to processes in the school and existing offers, and potentials are worked out for each individual and further steps are planned.
It seems important for young people to work on a "Plan B" in case the first apprenticeship they had in mind - usually in a large company - does not work out.
Together with the students, numerous ideas are collected on what could be adapted and expanded in and around the school: from cooperation with businesses from the hospitality and hotel industry to fitness offers docked to the school.
The topics and suggestions collected on the first day are further expanded and formulated in group work and presented and discussed in the group.
What can we improve about our situation? What can we do better in the second year?
Formulation of suggestions for improvement and ideas, evaluation of the most important concerns, what is particularly important to us?
The results from the two workshop days help to understand the current situation of the students and to concretize important steps as well as improvement measures of all involved actors.
Self-assessment
The workshop enabled a situation analysis of the poly students who did not make the transition from school to apprenticeship. These students would benefit from early individual support and strong reference persons. Existing offers and processes were evaluated on the basis of the feedback and form the basis for further considerations. In addition, the repeaters in the school year 2020/2021 were also specifically supported by the DuALPlus team after the workshop and increased cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises in the city is being sought.
Insights
Future checks make it possible to analyze the individual situation of students outside of the daily school routine and to plan the next steps with them. On the other hand, the workshop provides insight into the framework conditions that the students find themselves in and allows conclusions to be drawn for school development processes and the further development of support services.
After the first successful implementation in summer 2020, the project team recommends to institutionalize and further develop these workshops and to implement them in a structure.
Contact details:
Landeshauptstadt Bregenz
Sozialeservice und Gesellschaft
Belruptstraße 1, 6900 Bregenz
T +43 (0)5574 / 410-1610