DUBB – Digitalization and Inequality in the Context of Vocational Education and Training in Bremen and Bremerhaven

In the project "Digitalization and Inequality in the Context of Vocational Education and Training", vocational education and training is used as a lens with which inequalities arising from digitalization processes can be identified simultaneously at various levels of society, in order to clarify questions about the origins and formation of precisely these inequalities and to develop recommendations for action.

Digitalization processes represent a valuable addition to learning and work processes, while at the same time contributing to an intensification of inequality relationships at various levels (society, labor market, education, everyday life, etc.). A systematic exploration of the inequalities fostered by digitalization is still missing. The field of vocational education and training proves to be particularly useful for such a project, as it has intersections with both general education and the changed work processes of specialist work in companies. In addition, disadvantaged young people mainly end up in vocational training programs. Therefore, the aim of the project 'Digitalization and Inequality in the Context of Vocational Education and Training in Bremen and Bremerhaven' (DUBB) is to explore the current status at the level of companies, vocational schools, the professionalization of teachers, as well as with regard to knowledge stocks and starting prerequisites among students. In a fully integrated mixed-design, quantitative questionnaire surveys will be conducted at all four levels in vocational schools and companies in Bremen and Bremerhaven and supplemented by qualitative interviews of the above-mentioned groups of persons and exemplary work process analyses in selected companies. After an initial survey, the central problem areas will be identified and, in a second step, at least one problem area at each level will be examined in greater depth. The goal is to develop recommendations for action that can counteract the production of inequality, as well as to provide a solid data basis that enables educational policy and operational decisions to be made on an informed basis.

The DUBB research project is part of a special call for proposals from the state of Bremen, funded by the Bremen Fund, in the thematic area of "Society and the Individual in Digital Transformation - Consequences and Formation of the Digital Transformation".

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