Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the several characteristics of the construction of the contents of new vocational choice instruction (Berufswahlunterricht) at lower secondary schools in the Federal Republic of Germany. Although a large number of researches carried out into the theory about new vocational choice instruction, little is known about its actual conditions. We must pay attention to this fact. Therefore, I analyze new vocational choice instruction according to the contents of the textbooks of " Arbeitslehre" that published in 1990s. In the Federal Republic of Germany, lower secondary schools, namely secondary general school (Hauptschule) and Intermediate school (Realschule), mostly offer vocational choice instruction as a part of "Arbeitslehre". After the middle of 1980s many researchers for "Arbeitslehre" insist on the change of the traditional vocational choice instruction that put stress on the information about occupation, because it is not correspond to the situation of vocational training and employment in recent years. The new vocational choice instruction at lower secondary school level aims at giving students not on the information about occupation, but on the perspective of career. According to some textbooks of "Arbeitslehre" that I analyze, the contents of the new vocational choice instruction mainly consist of three parts: (a) information about occupation, for example, the kind of occupation and content of vocational training in the dual system, (b) information about the situation of vocational training and employment that student face in the future, for example, information about unemployment and mobility, (c) information that is necessary for the student to realize his career, for example, information about vocational continual education and the higher stage of education. The actual vocational choice instruction is no longer consisted only of information about occupation. Especially, the fact that a part of contents of actual vocational choice instruction contains the information about the higher stage of education is a characteristic that is not in the traditional vocational choice instruction. One can say that the theory and practice of new vocational choice instruction at lower secondary schools in the Federal Republic of Germany shows that it is necessary to consist of three contents at least that above mentioned in order to give the students the perspective of career.
