The Impact of Social Belonging on the Development of Competence in Commercial Apprentices

Abstract

Abstract. While numerous studies have emphasized the importance of social belonging on the development of competence, they focused primarily on compulsory education. This contribution examines the importance of social belonging within the context of vocational schools, using the example of commercial apprenticeship training. In a longitudinal study, 1,153 commercial apprentices were tested three times regarding the development of their civic-economic competence. Further, they were questioned about the quality of their teacher–student relationship as well as class relatedness as two dimensions of social belonging. The findings suggest that the teacher–student relationship is highly relevant to the development of the intrinsic learning motivation in apprentices. Class relatedness was somewhat relevant to the level of the civic-economic value orientation of apprentices. The findings are noteworthy because they point to the importance of social belonging in the context of vocational schools, even though apprentices spend only one or two days per week there and are taught by various teachers.