This project is being accomplished by bfz Bildungsforschung.The field of support for disabled people is marked by structural disparity. There is, for example, no regulation of who may teach and offer support at which locations. This means that the various actors in this field are drawn from a wide range of professional disciplines and have often acquired their skills primarily by means of practical experience and informal learning processes. Systematic assessment of their particular skills and expertise may, however, allow them to be awarded qualifications.
Given the background of increasing demands on the professionals involved in career guidance, it is important to pay attention to the continuing education of such workers. This is the aim of this project. Targeted transfer of theoretical knowledge and proven practical approaches allows professionalism to be shown and exploited. This allows advantage to be made of the high level of conceptual pedagogical development attained in the field of non-school support for the disabled today.
Three key areas of professional activity are focussed on: work methodology with the target group, organisational development within the educational institution and cooperation with third-parties in provision of disabled support.
In the project, a continuing education programme for those involved in vocational and occupational continuing education was developed and tested, which supports them in the vocational qualification of young people and young adults with special support needs. This involved close cooperation with the companies and educational institutions.
The programme is modular. The modules build on each other and contain self-directed learning, practical advice and self-reflection elements, and transmit special skills and expertise in the three key areas. For example, the topics of “motivational management”, “teaching planning learning techniques for heterogeneous groups”, “cooperation with companies and tailored acquisition of internships” and “new market segments and new support tools – possible consequences for educational organisations” are all addressed. The current strategies being developed by the research projects are integrated in a targeted way.
The trial implementation of the continuing education programme between September 2007 and January 2008 was evaluated and documented, in order to provide a contribution to pedagogical quality and on-going improvement of career guidance provision at the transition between school and work. All modules are published in the form of guidelines, allowing independent implementation of the programme.
