Status quo of the Austrian Production Schools

Originating in Denmark, production schools have been established in many European countries. Especially in Denmark and Germany they are commonplace – in these countries there are far more than 100 of these schools. Austria has also seen something like a boom in the field of production schools at the time of the survey: in 2001 the first production school was opened in Linz and by the end of 2010 16 schools had already been established in Austria. Further schools are under construction or are about to be opened.

In spite of this relative boom by then there were no precise definitions of what the exact characteristics of a production school are and what approaches and concepts are applied there.

Key aspects are the stabilisation of socially disadvantaged youths without continued school education or professional training as well as their preparation for continuing training or their entry onto the employment market. At the core of the educational concept is learning by producing – that is, knowledge and skills are conveyed especially by working in concrete areas of production.

The aim of this status quo report was to identify how exactly these conceptual key aspects of production schools were implemented in Austria. In addition, their employment market success was to be assessed.

For this purpose, a total population survey of all production schools in Austria as well as an evaluation of the data of the participants were conducted.