BET-U25

Project lead:
Prof. Dr. Stefan Höft
Prof. Dr. Matthias Rübner

Duration:
2013-2016

Project participants:
Michael Bösinger-Schmidt, BBF B.A., Dipl.-Religionspädagoge (religious education) (FH)   
Stephanie Sauer, Dipl.-Sozialwissenschaftlerin (sociologist)
Johanna Siegk, M.Sc. Wirtschaftspädagogik (business education)

Description of project:
Career counsellors for the National Employment Agency advise around 1.2 million school children, school leavers, apprentices and dropouts under the age of 25 every year. Alongside integration support counselling, designed to help with work placement, career and decision-making counselling  for young people plays a central role in their choice of career.

From 2010 up to the beginning of 2012, a new concept (BeKo) was introduced to the field of career counselling. To be able to examine the effects of career counselling empirically and derive practical implications from this for the further development of counselling concepts, the university was asked by the National Employment Agency headquarters to design a tool with which the change processes in the choice of career amongst young people can be measured and evaluated.

The focus of the research rested on the following aspects:

measuring the effectiveness of career counselling:
The measuring of the effects of career counselling is done by comparing the young adult in the process of choosing a career before and after a counselling session. Their status is identified based on five dimensions of career counselling according to BeKo:

• awareness of issues and willingness to participate,
• career self-assessment,
• level of career information,
• decision-making behaviour,
• action taken.

Examination of the effects of BET-U25tools on counselling quality:
It is assumed that involving BET-U25tools in career counselling can contribute to young adults being more active in thinking about questions in terms of career choice before counselling actually takes place. This way, counsellors are able to identify quicker where action needs to be taken as well as being able to establish strengths and weaknesses. This way, counselling can be based on a solid analsysis of the situation.

Identification of effective elements to shape professional counselling:
Empirical examination of the effect of different interview structures and various design features (such as, for example feedback, praise or directives) on the positive outcome of the counselling.

The BET-U25 procedure provides an operational, web-based evaluation tool which can measure an important target variable in counselling in the field of career orientation and career entry through several measurement points in time. The tool is available online.

Duration:
2018

Project participants:
Dr. Dörthe Beurer, Diplom-Psychologin (psychologist)

Project background:
Career counsellors for the National Employment Agency advise around 1.2 million school children, school leavers, apprentices and dropouts under the age of 25 every year. Career and decision-making counselling  for young people plays a central role in their choice of career, which also includes the question of what study programme to pursue. In addition to the BET-U25 tool for Secondary Level I (for school children wanting to start an apprenticeship), a further tool for school children at Secondary Level II with a desire to study was developed. Now, with BET-SekII, all change processes in the development in the choice of study programme for young adults can be measured and evaluated.

Model and tool development:
A tool to assess the status of course selection, based on a vocational psychology model for choosing a course of study, was developed and tested in schools (Background information). The findings led to the drawing up of a short version with 25 and a longer version with 40 questions. Standardised data for over 500 school children is available. A five-level standard value system with corresponding, differentiated recommendations (text modules) was developed for individual feedback on results. 

Online self-assessment and potential application:
An outline of the procedure is available as an online tool and offers a variety of potential applications:

• Those seeking advice can use it as a self-test to check their status in terms of choice of study programme as well as to receive tips on how to proceed.
• In individual counselling sessions, target approaches to support study orientation can be identified, and change processes can be mapped over several measurement points with the help of the BET-SEKII.
• The process can be used for group events for study orientation  to achieve an overview of school children's current status and to discuss a course of action.
• The process can also be used for research purposes and as an evaluation tool for counselling processes in the field of study orientation.