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Background: The Federal Vocational Baccalaureate constitutes the major link between the academic and vocational tracks in the Swiss educational system. Statistics show that only 20 per cent of a cohort move immediately to an academic track after graduation. Regarding the effects of economic competencies on these transitions, there is a substantial lack within the current state of research. This study thus aims to elucidate these effects by following a prevailing explorative approach. Methods: A cross-sectional design is used, and the data are based on a representative sample of N = 1.051 Federal Vocational Baccalaureate students of the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Data were gathered at the end of the school year 2010/2011 via an achievement test and a questionnaire.

Results: Results show positive interrelations for economic knowledge and skills, value-oriented dispositions as well as attitude towards economics on the one side and educational aspirations on the other side. Thus, interrelations regarding the intention to study in economics or a related field are stronger than for other fields. Conclusion: The study offers new insights on the effects of economic competencies and supports the assumption that economic competencies are part of prerequisites of students' educational aspirations and in the long run for social participation.

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In modern society, the ability to deal with financial and economic matters is becoming increasingly important. This ability is generally described as economic competence, economic literacy or financial literacy. This book concentrates on economic competence and financial literacy of young adults in the US, Europe and South America. The subjects of the research are mainly individuals who have begun an apprenticeship or university education. It contains two sections: the first delves into financial literacy; the second covers different facets of economic competence.

Section I, 'Financial literacy', contains: Towards a comprehensive financial literacy framework: voices from stakeholders in European vocational education and training / Seraina Leumann, Michael Heumann, Fatima Syed and Carmela Aprea; Secondary school students' understanding of the financial system / Peter Davies, Fatima Syed and Lindsey Appleyard; Analysis of banks' online information regarding mortgages as a basis for financially literate decision-making in first-time homebuying / Barbel Furstenau, Mandy Hommel, Claudia Leopold, Hector Ponce, and Mario Lopez; Financial literacy and financial behavior among young adults in the United States / Elizabeth Breitbach and William B. Walstad.

Section II, 'Economic competence', contains: Learners' economic competence in Switzerland: conceptual foundations and considerations for measurement / Doreen Holtsch and Franz Eberle; Effects of students sociocultural background on economic competencies in upper secondary Education / Andreas Juttler and Stephan Schumann; Facing commercial competence: modeling domain-linked and domain-specific competence as key elements of vocational development / Esther Winther, Dagmar Festner, Julia Sangmeister, and Viola Katharina Klotz; Opportunity recognition as part of intrapreneurship competence an analysis of exam essays of German industrial clerks / Christine Weiss and Susanne Weber; Increasing heterogeneity in students' prior economic content knowledge: impact on and implications for teaching in higher education / Roland Happ, Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Klaus Beck, and Manuel Forster; The necessity for well-founded teacher education in Economics: findings from curriculum analyses / Christin Siegfried.

Edited excerpts from publication.

Selected chapters are available in VOCEDplus from TD/TNC 145.860 to TD/TNC 145.864. Show less

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) based simulation and training is gaining increasing importance in vocational education and training (VET). However, while IVR is primarily investigated and utilized in technical domains, its implementation and the resulting effects in commercial education remain largely unexplored. Moreover, the experience of motion sickness is a widely reported phenomenon while using IVR, which can interfere with cognitive processes and should therefore be considered more closely in terms of learning and instruction. This explorative study focuses on domain-specific knowledge acquisition in vocational apprenticeship for retailers and the accompanying side effects on students' wellbeing in an IVR-based learning environment. For this purpose, an IVR-based scenario in a virtual supermarket was developed and tested with trainees in the field of retail at a German commercial vocational school. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, we compared the effects of IVR-based and conventional instruction on domain-specific knowledge acquisition in a sample of first-year trainees (N = 79). The findings indicate an advantage of IVR in the acquisition of domain-specific knowledge (n2 = .261). Although moderate motion sickness symptoms were reported in the experimental group, no direct links between the experience of motion sickness and learning outcomes could be identified. These findings advance the current knowledge about learning-related effects of IVR-based instruction in the field of VET and provide further understanding about the special conditions of IVR scenarios conducive to learning.

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Background: Citizens in modern democratic societies are confronted with complex demands, challenges, and economic problems, and they typically act as consumers, savers, voters, and employees. It is highly desirable for citizens to be able to competently manage these various demands. This ability we call economic-civic competence. Given the lack of empirical findings and adequate instruments on this issue, [the authors] analyze the economic-civic competence of commercial apprentices in Germany and Switzerland. In Swiss commercial apprenticeships, the fostering of this competence is explicitly anchored in the curricula of vocational schools. In Germany, the curricula coverage is not as broad as in Switzerland, which leads to an assumption of country differences in civic-economic competence.

Methods: A total of 1255 apprentices in the commercial occupations/branches of industrial clerk and logistic clerk were assessed at the end of their second or third training year. [The] newly developed, reliable and valid technology-based assessment on economic-civic competence includes issues such as the Euro crisis and public debt.

Results and conclusions: An advantage among the male trainees, which was expected from previous research, was confirmed only among the German logistic clerks. The expected gender effect was not observed among the German industrial clerks or the Swiss clerks. Furthermore, the results confirm the hypothesized higher scores among German trainees with a university entrance degree. In both countries, the industrial clerks scored significantly higher than the logistic clerks did, and the Swiss trainees scored higher than did their German counterparts in a comparable occupation. This difference becomes markedly stronger if only learners without a university entrance degree are considered. One possible explanation for the country difference may be that the promotion of economic-civic competence has a more prominent role in Swiss vocational schools during commercial apprenticeship. Considering the methodological restrictions, the findings should be interpreted primarily as explorative depictions of the characteristics and group differences of economic-civic competence. However, [the] study can also be seen in the broader context of contemporary interest and challenges in developing technology-based assessment within the field of education. Thus, [the] study contributes to further research on the characteristics and genesis of economic-civic competences as well as on technology-based assessments.

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