RaSchOWL: Region macht Schule - Region, Tradition and Innovation of the world of employment and work in East Westphalia-Lippe

The project RaSchOWL – Region macht Schule aims at fostering the vocational orientation of high school students from 7th to 9th grade. In order to achieve this objective, learning opportunities located in the region outside the school’s educational context are developed, tested and evaluated. The project takes place in close cooperation with high school teachers from secondary school level I as well as with representatives and institutions of the region East Westphalia-Lippe. The practical experiences during the learning situations intend to give the pupils insight into the changes of the world of employment and work in their region. At the same time, the concept enables the participating pupils to draw a comparison between the past and present situation and offers orientation for the future.

The high school students receive the opportunity to discover and pursue their personal interests and preferences regarding the world of employment and work, hence, the focus is put on the arrangement of a stimulating learning situation. As a guiding principle, the students should be provided with the capacity of acting on their own account. Taking this as a basis, in the end, they should notice an improvement in their ability of making a well-founded, reflected career choice based on their own personal preferences and moral concepts, considering the conditions of the current and future world of employment and work. They are supported in taking responsibility of their (own) personal and professional development.

During the project’s pilot phase, which lasts 28 months, six extracurricular learning opportunities are developed, each of them indicating a different didactic concept. The extracurricular places of learning comprise three museums and three companies, all of them spread out over the region East Westphalia-Lippe. On a long term-basis, the project aims at the identification of further suitable regions in order to transfer the innovative idea of combining the school, entrepreneurial and cultural perspective for the support of (vocational) orientation of adolescents. 

Publications:
(1) Buchbeitrag
Thomas Retzmann & Steffen Spitzner (2019): Wandel der Arbeitswelt – Zum Nutzen außerschulischer Lerngelegenheiten für die Orientierung in historischen, gegenwärtigen und zukünftigen Arbeitswelten. In: Berufsorientierung in der Schule. Gegenstand der ökonomischen Bildung. Hrsg. v. Rudolf Schröder. Wiesbaden, S. 123-141. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-24197-1_8

(2) Projekthandbuch
Thomas Retzmann, Steffen Spitzner & Fabio Fortunati (2019): Orientierung im Wandel der Berufs- und Arbeitswelt durch außerschulische Lerngelegenheiten. Essen. 173 S.. https://doi.org/10.17185/duepublico/70630

Project management: Prof. Dr. Thomas Retzmann 
Project staff, University of Duisburg-Essen: Steffen Spitzner, M.Sc.
Project partners: Teachers from high school secondary school level I as well as representatives and institutions of the region East Westphalia-Lippe
Project funding: PwC-Stiftung
Project aim: Fostering the vocational orientation of pupils of 7th to 9th grade of high school through the development of extracurricular learning opportunities 
Project period: March 2017 – December 2019

Funded by: