Compared to most other European countries Austria´s unemployment among young people is relatively low. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that Austria´s educational system comprises a wide range of schools for vocational education at the secondary level, one of which is the three-year Business School, the so-called “Handelsschule” (in short HAS). This school type has always been attractive to students who did not have the cognitive abilities and/or the motivation to pass A-level-exams but who wanted to gain profound knowledge of business matters in order to get a job or continue their education in a different type of school.

However, in the last years business schools experienced a decline of numbers of students as well as an increasing percentage of underachievers and consequently a poor reputation among employers. This is why the Austrian ministry of education has recently initiated a competence-oriented curriculum reform for the HAS to improve the students’ education in business and their preparation for the requirements of jobs in business.

The most important innovations of this curriculum reform are:

• the combination of several subjects (e.g. business administration and accounting) in one global subject in order to help students understand the interrelationships between various fields of business.
• the change from half-time to full-time schools by introducing a new subject called “competence-oriented self regulated learning”. These lessons should be used individually by the students for doing their homework, studying and preparing for examinations. Teachers should give support by answering questions and giving tips concerning study techniques.  
• the implementation of a compulsory internship to gain work experience before leaving school.

It is the main objective of a formative evaluation project to study ways of implementing the curriculum and how this affects teachers, students and the whole school as an organisation.  The project is based on the case studies of two HAS and focuses on the following research questions: 

• How is the new curriculum implemented?
• Which effects does the new curriculum have on teaching and learning as well as on the school organisation?
• How do teachers, students and the school administration deal with the innovations and which suggestions for improvement can be made?

The paper covers a wide range of subjects such as curriculum design, the implementation of innovations in schools and competence-oriented teaching and learning.

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