Adults with low or no formal qualifications are at risk of losing their jobs or slipping into precarious employment. Upskilling can improve their situation and is becoming even more important due to increasing reskilling needs in response to the transformation of the world of work. However, prior research shows that low-qualified adults tend to participate less in in continuing VET than better educated individuals (Nieuwenhove/De Wever 2022, Kruppe/Baumann 2019, Müller/Wenzelmann 2019). If they do participate in vocational training their dropout rate is comparatively high (Baas/Philipps 2019). And although already disadvantaged in terms of their education, the learning intentions of low-qualified workers can be below average (Kyndt et al. 2011).

Nevertheless, there are efforts in many countries to set up more workplace preparation programs to address urgent shortages of skilled workers. This is also the case in Austria, where the AMS - the Austrian labor office - finances competency-based VET programs for the unemployed as part of its active labor market policy. These programs are meant to ease the transition in employment.

Often, these vocational education and training measures can not achieve the purposes for which they were established. This leads to the question of how competency-based approaches to vocational education and training for low-qualified people need to be designed. Therefore, the presented study aims to formulate a set of design principles to develop vocational competencies for the transition to the labor market.

The didactic research project starts with an initial set of design principles based on a review of the literature (including Gillen 2013, Euler/Hahn 2014, Weber/Hojnik 2016). This is followed by a cross-case analysis that included four vocational education and training suppliers that the labor office considered to be good practices. Focus groups with VET trainers of these providers were conducted first to validate and refine design principles and second to gather implementation examples for the application of design principles in educational practice. Case comparisons then reveal what it takes in different contexts to make competency-based education and training work.

The study creates knowledge about the practice of competency-based training for the difficult-to-reach group of low-qualified adults from the perspective of the trainers involved. In this way, the gap between the theory of competency-based training and its implementation in practice is addressed. The cross-case analysis leadsto a list of refined design principles and their implementation conditions (Gössling et al. 2022). The comparison of very different training designs shows the transferability of these basic principles. The results can be used for the development of VET programs targeted at the needs of low-qualified adults.

Baas, Meike / Philipps, Veronika (2019): Über Ausbildung in Arbeit? Verläufe gering gebildeter Jugendlicher. In: Forschungsverbund Sozioökonomische Berichterstattung (Hrsg.): Berichterstattung zur sozioökonomischen Entwicklung in Deutschland: Exklusive Teilhabe - ungenutzte Chancen. Bielefeld: wbv. 1-36. https://doi.org/10.3278/6004498w012 Euler, Dieter / Hahn, Angela (2014): Wirtschaftsdidaktik. Bern: Haupt. Gillen, Julia (2013): Kompetenzorientierung als didaktische Leitkategorie in der berufli- chen Bildung. Ansatzpunkte für eine Systematik zur Verknüpfung curricularer und metho- discher Aspekte. In: bwp@ Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik – online. Ausgabe 24. http://www.bwpat.de/ausgabe24/gillen_bwpat24.pdf Gössling, Bernd / Borbe, Victoria / Hauser, Lena / Thurow, Nina (2022): Präzisierung und Entwicklung von Schlüsselkompetenzen in der beruflichen Aus- und Weiterbildung. Abschlussbericht des Kooperationsprojekts ‚Key Competencies‘ (KEYS) in Kooperation mit dem AMS Tirol. Innsbruck: Universität Innsbruck. https://ams-forschungsnetzwerk.at/pub/13665 Kruppe, Thomas / Baumann, Martina (2019): Weiterbildungsbeteiligung, formale Qualifikation, Kompetenzausstattung und Persönlichkeitsmerkmale. In: IAB- Forschungsbericht. No. 1/2019. Nürnberg. http://hdl.handle.net/10419/204767 Kyndt, Eva / Govaerts, Natalie / Dochy, Filip / Baert, Herman (2011): The Learning Intention of Low-Qualified Employees. A Key for Participation in Lifelong Learning and Continuous Training. Vocations and Learning 4, 211-229. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-011-9058-5 Müller, Normann / Wenzelmann, Felix (2019): Berufliche Weiterbildung – Teilnahme und Abstinenz. In: Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung (ZfW) / Journal for Research on Adult Education. 47–73 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40955-019-0141-0 Nieuwenhove, Lisse van / De Wever, Bram (2022): Why are low-educated adults underrepresented in adult education? Studying the role of educational background in expressing learning needs and barriers. In: Studies in Continuing Education, 44:1, 189-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2020.1865299 Weber, Friederike / Hojnik, Sylvia (2016): Praxishandbuch Kompetenzorientierung. Theoretische Grundlagen und praktische Methoden eines kompetenzorientierten beruflichen Trainings. Unter Mitarbeit von: Dorothea Pausch-Heidarian und Andrea Reiter. Wien: Communicatio. https://www.ams-forschungsnetzwerk.at/downloadpub/AMS_PH_Kompetenzorientierung.pdf