Sozialisationsprozesse beim Übergang in den Lehrbetrieb (SoLe) - 2011-2017

The dissolution of apprenticeship contracts or apprenticeship breaks represent an economic and human loss for the state and companies and pose risks for their further professional and personal development (Neuenschwander, Gerber, Frank & Rottermann, in prep.). In order to learn more about the conditions for a successful integration of school leavers into host companies, the socialization processes in the project "SoLe" are to be examined during the first six months in host companies. Emphasis is placed on social processes and their impact on job satisfaction.

The basis for this research project is a further developed model of occupational socialisation among newcomers, which refers to work done by Kammeyer-Mueller und Wanberg (2003). From an interactional perspective, both the personal characteristics of adolescents before the transition and the socialisation tactics of the workplace have an impact on job satisfaction and the intention to complete apprenticeship. We assume that these distal outcomes of occupational socialization are due to social factors such as social integration in the workplace and conflict management on one hand, and cognitive factors such as the accomplishment of tasks or training goals on the other hand (so-called proximal outcomes of occupational socialization).

In a quasi-experimental longitudinal design, around 1800 young people who committed to an apprenticeship at the end of the 9th school year will be randomly selected in a multistage process and will be supervised during a six-month apprenticeship. The sampling procedure randomly selects classes (cluster sample) of five Swiss German cantons (AG, BE, BL, BS, SO). At the end of elementary school, online questionnaires for adolescents and printed short questionnaires for their parents and teachers are used to analyze the conditions for a successful occupational socialisation. After the transition, the adolescents are interviewed monthly online to analyze the course of the socialisation process. In the final survey, the concepts are again recorded in a multi-perspective (young people, parents, vocational educators) using online and postal questionnaires.

The expected results show how social integration processes take place after the transition to a host company. This provides information on how the elementary school prepares young people for the transition to apprenticeship and how host companies can support their professional socialization processes. This increases the chances that young people will successfully complete their apprenticeship. Literature: Kammeyer-Mueller, J.D., & Wanberg, C.R. (2003). Unwrapping the organizational entry process: Disentangling multiple antecedents and their pathways to adjustment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88 (5), 779-794. Neuenschwander, M.P., Gerber, M., Frank, N. & Rottermann, B. (in Vorb.). School and work. Pathways to gainful employment.