School Upper Secondary, Pre-Vocational Year

PRE-VOCATIONAL YEAR AND INTEGRATED VOCATIONAL TRAINING

Initial vocational training for young people with disabilities or other disadvantage.
Integrated vocational training as a fully-fledged extended apprenticeship (the extension may be for a maximum of 1 year, or, in exceptional cases, 2 years).
Integrated vocational training by providing partial qualifications of relevance to the labour market for a period of 1 to 3 years.
Support and supervision by vocational training assistants.
Pre-Vocational Year: A one-year course, representing the ninth year of education at the Pre-vocational School, PVS (Polytechnische Schule) or within Schools for pupils with special educational needs.

Pre-Vocational Year

The purpose of the Pre-Vocational Year that forms part of compulsory education is to enhance the opportunities within the labour market of young people with disabilities or other disadvantage. The Pre-Vocational Year is being implemented in Special Schools or as a pilot project in the context of integrated education at the Pre-vocational School (Polytechnische Schule) for pupils with special educational needs.

During an eight-week orientation stage at the start of the school year, pupils gain an insight into practical vocational areas that relate to their own career interests. Furthermore, the Pre-Vocational Year is intended to build upon and extend the personal, theoretical and practical competences that the young people have already acquired. This should then make it easier for them to access the labour market and increase their chances of getting a suitable job and being able to handle the requirements this would place upon them.

Integrated vocational education

For young people with disabilities and disadvantages, it is often very difficult to gain an initial foothold in the labour market. For that reason, a new form of initial vocational education has been developed that will fulfil the need that exists amongst young people with disabilities or disadvantages for a suitable form of vocational training, whilst at the same time responding to the need amongst businesses for suitably trained workers.

The Integrated Vocational Training (Integrative Berufsausbildung, IBA), which was introduced in 2003, enables disadvantaged young people to be provided with a programme of tailor-made vocational training.
The following types of young people are able to receive integrated vocational training:

Disabled people, in the sense of the Appointment of Disabled Persons Act (Behinderteneinstellungsgesetz)
Individuals with special educational needs who have completed their compulsory education
People who have not completed their compulsory education, or have completed that type of education, but with a negative outcome
Individuals who are difficult to place for specific reasons

Two types of Integrated Vocational Training are available: Integrated Vocational Training takes place either by extending the duration of an apprenticeship by one year, or, in justified exceptional cases, by two years (an Apprenticeship Examination to be taken on completion) or in the context of a sub-qualification that forms part of a training profession, for a duration of one year to three years. The training will be limited to specific parts of the vocational profile of a training profession, enhanced, if need be, with the inclusion of parts of the vocational profile of other training professions. Vocational training will be completed by taking a completion examination.

The programme of Integrated Vocational Training will be supervised and supported by a vocational training assistant. The vocational training assistants will supervise and support the young people and will support the workplaces providing the training in matters of a socio-educational or psychological nature, in order to guarantee the success of the training. This will be achieved by means of ongoing cooperation with the parents, companies and the vocational school (Berufsschule).

The next step:

The opportunities available to young people who successfully complete the Pre-Vocational Year and the Integrated Vocational Training include the following:

Employment as a specialist worker in the training workplace or other workplace
The Higher Education Entrance Examination can largely be completed during the apprenticeship (in line with the model "apprenticeship and Matura")
Once a young person has passed the Higher Education Entrance Examination, he/she may attend a Post-secondary VET Course or take a course of study at a University of Applied Sciences, a University or a Teacher Training College.
Attending further training courses or Upper Level Vocational Schools for Adults
Attendance at a School for Industrial Master College, Building Craftsperson and Master Craftsperson Schools
Taking an examination for the master craftsman's certificate or qualifying examination, followed by self-employment in a regulated trade
Self-employment in an unregulated trade

Sources (in German)

Oesterreich.gv.at - Teilqualifikation/Lehre in verlängerter Lehrzeit (Partial qualification/apprenticeship in extended apprenticeship period)
https://www.oesterreich.gv.at/themen/bildung_und_neue_medien/lehre/Seite.333906.html

Community Integration Sonderpädagogik - Integrative Berufsausbildung (Community Integration Special Needs Education - Integrated Vocational Education)
www.cisonline.at/nahtstelle-schuleberuf/integration-in-der-pts

Bundesministerium für für Digitalisierung und Wirtschaftsstandort
https://www.bmdw.gv.at/Themen/Lehre-und-Berufsausbildung.html