Vocational education and training (VET) is of central importance in Germany concerning economic development and social integration. The demand for VET among young people, however, has systematically declined in recent decades, a trend that had even intensified in the pandemic context (BIBB 2023). One reason is the demographic trend in Germany reflected in declining numbers of school leavers. These days, young people increasingly aim for school-leaving certificates on a high level and show a high tendency to enter a HE study programme afterwards (BMBF 2023). If they decide for a VET qualification, they do so preferably in the commercial field rather than in the technical field or in STEM professions (BIBB 2023). This indicates that VET appears to lack appeal, particularly for high-achieving young people (Hoffmann & Henty-Huthmacher, 2015, p. 3; BIBB, 2023).

In view of the increasing requirement levels in STEM professions (Warning & Weber, 2017; Arntz et al., 2020), there is a decreasing motivation among young people to take up such a profession. In addition, from the companies’ perspective, they are often not up to the requested requirements (Kuhlee et al., 2022, p. 673). In particular, there is a lack of suitable high-achieving applicants holding an HE entrance qualification in demanding technical training occupations. Therefore, these young people are considered as an important target group for image campaigns and innovation approaches in VET in order to meet the demand for skilled workers with vocational qualifications (Kroll, 2018, p. 132; BIBB, 2023). Taking this into account, the 17 projects within the InnoVET initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) aim to design new higher VET qualifications focussing on industrial and technical fields in particular. The aim is to strengthen VET through further education and training courses – partly dovetailed with academic education - and thus to increase the attractiveness of VET.

But what makes VET attractive to young people? What makes a vocational career pathway attractive compared to an academic one? What do young people think about these newly designed vocational programmes? Can these programmes influence young peoples’ decision in favour of a vocational training and career pathway? These questions have neither been the focus of the InnoVET projects nor of empirical studies (Neu, 2021) and against this background are getting investigated more deeply in this paper. Based on empirical data from the research project GInnoVET, the paper discusses parameter of attractiveness of VET from the perspective of young people, presents the central design features of the newly designed qualification programmes and discusses the extent to which these programmes could influence the decision of young people for a VET pathway.

The theoretical background gets provided mainly through expectancy-value models (e. g. Eccles, 2011). The basic idea behind such models is that an educational pathway is favoured when it has a high subjective value and therefore also a high perceived benefit for the person and when at the same time the person expects to be able to achieve this option successfully. Personal, social and institutional factors are relevant for the respective assessment of the subjective value and the expectation of success (Schnitzler, 2019).

A distinction can also be made between influencing factors that arise from the training phase itself and those that arise from the future prospects associated with a successfully completed VET programme (Neu, 2021). According to Heublein et al. (2018), aspects of the training conditions and having the opportunity to shape the training conditions oneself can be subsumed under attractiveness during VET qualification. However, after completing the qualification, expectations of the labour market, aspects of professional self-realisation and skills acquisition become relevant for participants.

Against the background of the model approach outlined, one of the objectives of the conducted research is to identify relations between design features of the VET programmes, the perceived attractiveness of such training programmes and the possible choices made by young people. The collection of empirical data follows an exploratory research design, taking into account a mixed-method approach. In a first step, a total of 12 problem-centred interviews were conducted in spring 2023 with young people who had opted for VET or for a HE degree course in a technical subject area after gaining their HE entrance qualification in order to record the individual views of young people with regard to the essential features of attractiveness in terms of VET. The generated data corpus of 217 pages of transcript material was coded and analysed using a structuring content analysis (Mayring 2019) considering a deductive-inductive approach. A consensual procedure was used to ensure quality. Based on the findings generated in the first step and the theoretical considerations presented, a questionnaire study of trainees and students in industrial-technical disciplines is currently being conceptualised and implemented in a second step focussing on the federal states of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Against the background of the research objective outlined above, the analysis will draw on group comparisons between VET trainees and HE students with regard to their educational choices, their assessments of essential attractiveness parameters of vocational training and academic education and their assessment patterns for the innovation approaches mentioned in particular.

Based on the interview data, factors among young people with a HE entrance qualification linked to the decision for VET were identified. It becomes apparent that next to influences from the social and regional environment, the vocational orientation process and the young people's assessment of costs, benefits and opportunities are relevant, too. The young people surveyed – undertaking VET - rated a strong practical relevance, the physical nature of the work and the immediate usefulness of what they learn during the VET as particularly positive. They are also attracted by a certain degree of financial independence thanks to the received salary, a good work-life balance as well as the fact that they are able to remain in their regional and known social environment. The majority of interviewees believe that it is easier to finance an apprenticeship coming along with a salary rather than a degree programme. With regard to the expectations of young people, only those interested in VET appear to have a high expectation of the benefits linked to a VET qualification. They rate their chances of success for a HE degree significantly lower than students interested in such programmes. Good grades and a high self-assessed probability of success with regard to HE degree programmes, on the other hand, reduce the probability of undertaking a VET pathway. After completing a VET, job security, an expected immediate integration into labour market and further training options appear to be important decision criteria for young people with a HE entrance qualification. Against the background of the findings generated from the questionnaire survey, the qualitative findings are critically positioned and reflected upon in the paper. Conclusions on the attractiveness of VET in relation to academic education are drawn, and the possible increase in attractiveness on the basis of innovation approaches in VET are discussed.

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