Opportunities for Adaptive Learning Environments to Promote Sustainability-Oriented Innovation Competence in Vocational Education and Training

Achieving a sustainable economic system is a key challenge facing society. However, sustainable business to date has been only minimally considered when it comes to the requisites and curricula of business trainees. It generally has been left up to schools and teachers to provide their students with sustainable business skills. This involves creating teaching and training that effectively harmonize with learner requirements. To support teachers in this process, the following develops a sustainability-oriented innovation competence typology using a latent profile analysis based on data gathered from 1,149 business trainees who were in the first, second, or third year of their apprenticeship. This typology can be used to plan and develop classroom teaching. Competency assessment was done using a multiple-choice test along with a questionnaire to determine students’ beliefs about sustainable development. The latent profile analysis revealed six groups of learner competence profiles, each of which require specific teaching when it comes to achieving sustainable innovation skills. Based on these, the following paper develops recommendations for specific teaching methods and lessons that effectively promote business trainee sustainability-oriented innovation competence, while at the same time including their specific requirements into teaching.