Contemporary society is marked by ecological, political, and economic challenges at local, regional, and global levels. This so-called new normal is frequently conceptualized through the framework of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA). Its underlying drivers include increasing individualization, unrestrained exercises of power, and forms of egoism that may extend to narcissism. At the same time, human beings are not solely autonomous individuals but are inherently and inseparably social actors. While the acquisition of professional competencies remains an essential educational objective (KMK, 2007), addressing the major challenges of the present era requires a stronger emphasis on social responsibility, solidarity, and cooperative practices.

The question is: How can we shape vocational education and training in such a way that learners can acquire the skills they need to meet current and future challenges?

In this context, we present our model of learning in Junior Companies (Reich, 2003; Tamm & Gramlinger, 2006), which is based on two scientific foundations:  the African philosophy of Ubuntu (Maringe, 2022) and socioeconomic education (Tafner, 2019) with an action-oriented teaching and learning model (Albers, 2001).

Ubuntu, often described as a form of African humanism (Biney, 2014), is grounded in the understanding that personhood is constituted through relationships and social interaction. This relational conception is succinctly captured in the oft-cited maxim, “A person is a person through other persons” (Mbiti, 1969, 141). Desmond Tutu (1999) similarly places humanity at the centre of Ubuntu philosophy, emphasizing that humaneness, in the Ubuntu sense, emerges only through mutual recognition and appreciation by others. Accordingly, individuals require community in order to realize their full human potential and, at the same time, bear responsibility toward it. Ramose (1999) further elaborates this perspective by arguing that personhood is not an inherent given but a status that must be attained through social integration. In this process, the community assumes a central role as a mediating force that transmits norms and values, thereby catalysing the ongoing development of personality. In this view, Ubuntu challenges the Western philosophical tradition that often elevates individual autonomy above collective well-being, proposing instead that social interdependence is vital to human dignity and fulfilment (Mtebe & Monchena, 2025, 10).

At the same time, this relational ontology reveals clear parallels with the authors’ socio-economic perspective on education, which likewise conceives of individuals as socially embedded subjects whose development is inseparable from communal contexts. According to Tafner (2019), socio-economic education places the human being—embedded within cultural and societal contexts—at its core. From a socioeconomic perspective, economic activities are not viewed exclusively through the lens of academic economics. Instead, a distinction is made between scientific economics and the lifeworld economy. Consequently, social, political, and ethical dimensions are regarded as integral to economic activity and are critically examined in terms of efficiency, responsibility, and meaning. This educational approach advocates for a 'life-serving economy' (Ulrich, 2008), emphasizing both individual responsibility for shaping one’s work and living environment and active integration into economic and societal structures. The collaborative development of this perspective constitutes a central focus of the project and is outlined in this contribution. In doing so, we follow Matthew (2018, 195), who argues “that approaches which conceive of Ubuntu as an unfinished concept—critically reflecting on external influences while engaging with them and advancing the concept independently—are particularly promising”.

In this study, Ubuntu is operationalized through the “Rule of Five” (Think, Learn, Connect, Serve, Grow), a praxis-oriented framework aimed at systematically developing relational competencies and moral agency. These capacities are integral to the “I & We paradigm” articulated by Etzioni (1988), which constitutes a foundational reference point for contemporary socio-economic education (Tafner, 2019; Casper & Tafner, 2022). This cross-cultural perspective informs the development of an action-oriented teaching and learning model. Accordingly, this contribution examines in greater detail which pedagogical and didactic frameworks support the implementation of social and action-oriented learning within junior companies in Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as the resources required for their effective realization. To this end, we will examine the circle of complete action according to Volpert (1999) and Hacker (1998), which we consider, in a further developed form, to be fundamental to action-oriented teaching and learning. It is argued that education in the sense of Ubuntu (Armbruster & White, 2021) does not emerge solely from the execution and completion of professionally and socially relevant learning tasks. Rather, the development of professional and social competence requires that learners, as active subjects, possess sufficient justification for their actions (Hartmann & Haseloff, 2024). This, in turn, presupposes the ability to draw upon one’s own practical experiences as well as theoretical concepts of learning (Holzkamp, 1993). Both conditions are facilitated through learning processes embedded in junior companies.

By applying this framework to the design and implementation of teaching and learning processes in Junior Companies in East Africa, this contribution illustrates how vocational education and training can move beyond a narrow focus on skills acquisition. Instead, vocational training is conceptualized as a holistic educational process that integrates professional expertise with social and ethical dimensions, as also required in Kenya and Ethiopia (SHE, 2020; TVETA, 2023). Within this framework, the aim is to foster the development of Ubuntu-oriented practitioners—that is, professionals whose technical competencies are intrinsically connected to environmental responsibility, community engagement, and collaborative problem-solving. These integrated capacities are regarded as essential for addressing global megatrends and for redefining professional practice in East Africa in the context of the twenty-first century (Solomon, 2016). At the conference, we will present the proposed teaching and learning concept for Junior Companies, along with its underlying educational philosophy, and invite participants to engage in a moderated discussion

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