[Combined vocational education and industrial management--presentation of a cooperative project for improved integration of adolescents with learning handicaps].

Major structural labour market changes, i.e. dramatic losses in job opportunities for unskilled labour and continually rising levels of job requirements facing skilled workers on the one hand and an increasing demand for skilled workers on the other, are entailing enhanced job opportunities for disadvantaged societal groups, at the same time however also increasing the occupational risk of these populations, among them the learning disabled. The vocational training centres having for more than a decade been gaining experience in the vocational and social rehabilitation of this latter group, the project outlined is intended to make even better use of their potential. The main objectives of the project are: 1. optimizing the vocational training centres' range of placement-focussed measures by: intensifying industrial training periods, coordinated "start up" support on occupational entry, post-placement services; 2. transfer of the vocational training centres' technical knowledge and experience into industry-based training by: follow-along support services ("ausbildungsbegleitende Hilfen"), workshops on the initial vocational training of learning disabled young adults, and other forms of cooperation. Apart from reaching the goals outlined, the project is expected to give new impulse to the day-to-day practice of the vocational training centres as well as to generate even greater networking of the centres with their industrial environments.