Supporting Young Immigrants in Their Transition From School to Work? A Staff Perspective on Challenges of Vocational Integration Classes

Abstract

Context: The implementation of successful measures to support immigrants' integration in cultural, social, and economic life can be considered as one of today's greatest challenges for many societies. This is especially true for adolescent immigrants who have not yet been able to finish education or gain qualifications relevant to joining the labour market. That is why many receiving countries have developed and implemented special programmes that aim at supporting immigrants' integration by facilitating their employability. Unfortunately, not much is known about the process of implementing these programmes or about how education systems, schools, and teachers are dealing with the new situation and target group. In this contribution, the implementation, development, and challenges of German Vocational Integration Classes (VIC), as an example of comparable programmes in the EU, are investigated to address this research gap. The paper considers the following exploratory research questions: (a) What challenges have been experienced by teachers and social workers in the implementation of VIC as well as in the integration of immigrants into the labour market in recent years? (b) How can these challenges be met in the long run and how should VIC be developed to better achieve its aims? Methods: To answer these questions, a sequential qualitative study containing questionnaire and interview elements was conducted. First, teachers and social workers involved in VIC filled in a questionnaire about their experiences and experienced challenges in implementing VIC (N = 46). Then, supplementing interviews were conducted with participants from the first sample in order to generate further insights and to contextualise the findings from the first study part (N = 14). Findings: From the respondents' answers, it appears that the VIC programme is well implemented. The results show, however, that central challenges continue to exist. This concerns, for example, legal regulations or the development of adequate curricula, but also the scope and quality of language education. In addition, problems have also been identified with regard to students' culture-specific education and their individual attitudes. These prevailing problems seem to affect schooling and educational processes. In addition, respondents report feeling left alone to deal with problems and that their experiences from their daily work in VIC and with immigrants are not sufficiently taken into account in policy and school-related decisions. Conclusions: Although VIC seems well implemented, key challenges remain in the view of the participants. It was found that teachers cannot solve many of the identified problems themselves, as they require action at the level of policy or school organisation. For staff, this can be accompanied by increased stress and demotivation. For the young immigrants, the existing challenges can have a long-term impact on school success and transition to vocational education and training. The study thus highlights the importance of targeted and holistic strategies to support immigrant integration through education.

Thrown in at the deep end? Perceptions of burdens, gains, and contributions to the integration of refugee students among teachers with(out) target group-specific professional knowledge

“…In general, there is no Germany-wide representative study of teachers in preparation classes for refugees, so that we have to fall back on the findings from regional studies. However, since our findings are in line with findings in other German federal states for vocational schools (Simml, 2019;Reinke and Goller, 2022) as well as for elementary schools (Karakayali et al, 2017), they can be combined to form a bigger picture. This picture is also consistent with findings from other countries, where teachers teach refugees under often very different conditions (e.g., Khansa and Bahous, 2021 for Lebanon; Asghari, 2022 for Sweden).…”

“…Jørgensen et al, 2021). Teachers play a crucial role in the attainment of educational qualifications because their teaching provides the subject-specific and cross-curricular foundations for successful completion (Reinke and Goller, 2022). Language teaching is an essential element in this regard, as knowledge of the language of instruction is closely related to academic achievement (Kempert et al, 2016, p. 158;Schipolowski et al, 2021).…”

“…What knowledge, skills, and attitudes do teachers need to support the education and integration of refugee students, while also coping with particular stresses that arise from e.g., heterogeneous class composition or unusual behaviors in the class (Kärner et al, 2016;Karakayali et al, 2017;Reinke and Goller, 2022)? A qualitative SINUS study by Calmbach and Edwards (2019) shows that young refugees judge their teachers by their "sensitivity or [...] demand responsiveness with regard to the specific situation of young refugees, good lesson preparation, openness to or patience with queries, and discipline or authority" (p. 81; translation by the authors).…”

“…Thus, many studies focus on refugees themselves as the target group to be educated (e.g., Calmbach and Edwards, 2019;Maué et al, 2021). In contrast, there has been little research on the teachers of refugees in terms of the challenges the teachers face or regarding positive aspects they relate to their job (e.g., for Germany: Karakayali et al, 2017; for Lebanon: Khansa and Bahous, 2021;Weiß et al, 2021; for Sweden: Asghari, 2022; for the U.S.: Damaschke-Deitrick et al, 2022;Reinke and Goller, 2022). Yet, it is the teachers who support refugees in their education and their progress toward an independent life in the host society.…”

“…Hence, educational institutions must both create the basis for the integration efforts of refugees and contribute to integration on the part of the host society (cf. Reinke and Goller, 2022 ). For immigrant children and young people whose German language skills are not sufficient to attend a regular class, so-called preparation classes have therefore been set up at general education and vocational schools.…”