Risky Voyages: Learning Experiences, Transition Behaviours and Career Outcomes

Abstract

In comparison with the interviews of the young employees, the trainers put subtly differentiated emphasis on different aspects of the training, although they represented only two different occupational groups. It is likely that the trainers gave answers in accordance with what ‘should’ be the result of good training, regardless of whether they themselves lived up to these expectations or not. The recipients of training give a narrower range of responses to questions on the training process, even though their occupational spread is far wider. Retrospectively the interviewees found the contents, structure and organization of the training good. Within Group A it is generally stated that the period of training left solid knowledge and capabilities (for their start in working life). In response to the question ‘what were the most difficult things that you had to learn?’ the interview data suggested that the new demands with which the young employees were confronted after their period of training were not primarily caused by professional or unusual company-specific features, but rather arose from the need to demonstrate interdisciplinary competencies such as initiative, responsibility, cooperation with colleagues, continuity of work and the ability to assert oneself.