This thesis deals with the subject matter of pre-professional education of the teaching degree for secondary schools. Considering the high number of students who drop out of school as well as the ones who are at risk of doing so based on PISA it becomes clear that a successful occupational orientation is of great importance. Thanks to comparative educational science (a measure of academic pedagogy) it is possible to illustrate educational challenges of individual countries. Therefore utilizing

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... he Austrian pre-vocational education to compare international standards may serve to depict the shortcomings as well as the strengths of the current systems. For that reason the curriculum for occupational orientation for Austria, Bremen and Hamburg were compared. More precisely the curriculum for lower secondary schools and comprehensive schools were examined. In order to fully understand the pertinence and the extensive process involved with occupational orientation a description of pre-professional training entailing the following group of topics will precede the comparison: career choice, career choice theories, influencing factors and history of development. The previously mentioned comparison in which the differences and similarities are determined will be the centerpiece of this thesis. This leads to the conclusion that each of the three examined curriculums exhibit deficiencies and hence improvements are necessary.