One of the most important decisions in life is the choice of a profession. Alongside the parental home and the circle of friends, school is one of the most important places where career guidance takes place. The process of career guidance is thus shaped by social values, norms and demands, which are subject to constant change, as well as technological and social developments in the economic and employment system. Accordingly, career guidance is a learning process that takes place both informally in daily life and formally in school. The alignment of subject content with vocational orientation is of particular importance, as in this way all young people receive vocational orientation that is equally relevant to the subject in question.

As part of a project funded by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), we are developing modularised teaching materials that can be used both as part of project weeks and in regular lessons. In addition, school classes can come to the ChemOL² school laboratory to learn about the professions.

Following the general information on plant growth and fertiliser, students are educated about the role of different professions in soil and fertiliser analysis. The professions are briefly introduced to the students. In addition, the students receive information about the required school-leaving qualification, the training and the activity of the individual professions. For fertiliser analysis, the following professions are presented to the pupils, whose activities they also carry out in the laboratory. The following professions are covered in this school laboratory:

• Agricultural technical assistant
• Agricultural biologist
• Environmental scientist
• Environmental management officer

In the first student lab, four different professions are integrated into one large context; in the second student lab, on the other hand, the different professions are focused on more intensively, so that a separate station was developed for each individual profession. The second pupils' laboratory includes a total of 13 different occupations:

• Apprenticeship occupations:
  • Environmental protection assistant
  • Sewage technology specialist
  • Recycling specialist
  • Environmental protection laboratory assistant
• Further training occupations
  • Nature and landscape conservationist
  • Water supply and wastewater disposal technician
  • Technician for chemical engineering
  • Water analyst
  • Environmental Protection Management Officer
  • Immission Control Officer
• Occupations
  • Environmental analyst
  • Environmental Engineer
  • Hydrogeologist

The experiments are mainly soil and water analyses: Depending on the profession, different aspects of environmental protection are addressed in order to achieve the greatest possible diversity. In addition, there is a station where the young people have to evaluate the results of an analysis in order to also address necessary evaluation skills in chemical professions. These points are intended to link the materials as well as with possible aspects of the environment and environmental protection.