The study INDUCT aims at discovering the relationship between a country‘s VET-system and employers’ recruitiment and training practices. It is proposed that different types of educational systems (dual, school-based; vocational, academic) lead to different forms of company-based recruitment, induction and training practices of newly hired employees. 

Research has shown that those systems that combine formal education with learning in work-processes have been very successful in integrating youth into the labour market and suffer less from youth unemployment than countries with other forms of VET. However, this connection has loosened in the last decade (Brzinsky-Fay, 2007). However, the respective practices and processes in companies have only been scarcely object of research.

The study seeks to produce knowledge about the variety of forms of induction, related means of supporting  employees’ career development, as well as  about the contexts of competence development.

The issue of recruitment and induction is not fully new to the work of BIBB. A first research project concerning this subject has been carried out by BIBB in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s on national level.  The 1988 report  “Learning after apprenticeship. The first years of employment as a phase of learning” [1] analyzed the learning and professional development in the first years of employment upon completion of (initial) vocational education. It was found out that continuing learning and education after apprenticeship became increasingly important.

Another important aspect within research on induction is that – in the discussion around the benefits of work-based vocational education - it is usually seen as an advantage of work-based vocational education as opposed to school-based forms that employer can reduce induction and instruction costs when employing apprentices after their initial training (Cramer & Müller, 1994; Herget & Walden, 2002). In big enterprises  practising apprenticeships the extent of necessary work-based instruction after completion is seen as an indicator for its quality (Bremer & Jagla, 2000).

Recent research concerning induction tends to be less generalisable: often it is based on the analyses of induction processes in a selected enterprise (Drees, 2009; Rappe, 2006).  A first international overview on research into induction processes has been published only recently (Zdravkovic, 2008). However, it mainly applies the perspective of organisational socialisation and does neither target the issue of professional knowledge and skills nor the match between qualifications and job requirements.

Major characteristics of the study are the following aspects:

• empirical  contribution to the topic /survey perpective
• better profiling the role of workbased learning (in companies) for competence development
• shedding light on the relationship between different educational patterns within and between education and training systems , recruitment and informal learning

Brzinsky-Fay, C. (2007). Lost in Transition? Labour Market Entry Sequences of School Leavers in Europe. European Sociological Review, 23(4), 409-422. Cramer, G., & Müller, K. (1994). Nutzen der betrieblichen Berufsausbildung. Köln: Deutscher Instituts-Verlag. Drees, B. J. (2009). Die Einarbeitung in die Praxis als Schlüsselelement eines Bildungssystems der Zukunft. Ein Konzept für die Weiterentwicklung von Traineeausbildung in innovativen Unternehmen. München: Hampp. Herget, H., & Walden, G. (2002). Nutzen der betrieblichen Ausbildung für Betriebe - erste Ergebnisse einer empirischen Erhebung. Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis(6), 32-37. Rappe, C. (2006). Die Einarbeitung neuer Mitarbeiter als pädagogischer Prozess. Aufgezeigt am Beispiel einer Firma der Kerntechnik. Zdravkovic, D. (2008). Gute Mitarbeiter durch gute Einarbeitung. Kritische Analyse des internationalen Forschungsstandes. Dresden: Techn. Univ., Fak. Wirtschaftswiss.