Transferable competences of young people with a high dropout risk in vocational training in Germany Andreas Frey • Lars Balzer • Jean-Jacques Ruppert Received: 27 March 2013 / Accepted: 20 December 2013 / Published online: 10 January 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract This paper examines whether the subjective beliefs on their compe- tences of 409 trainees in machinery, sales, and logistics constitute a reliable and valid way to measure transferable competences. The analysis of results attributes satisfactory to good reliability values to the assessment procedure. Furthermore, it could be shown that young people with a higher dropout risk evaluated their methodological and social competences lower than those trainees with a lower dropout risk. Therefore it may be possible to prevent early dropout from vocational training through specific strengthening of these competences as well as through individual competence-based counselling during training. Re ´sume ´. Compe ´tences transfe ´rables des jeunes pre ´sentant un risque e ´leve ´ de de ´crochage dans la formation professionnelle en Allemagne. Cet article explore si les perceptions subjectives de 409 apprentis en inge ´nierie, en vente et en logis- tique sur leurs compe ´tences, constituent une manie `re fiable et valide pour mesurer des compe ´tences transfe ´rables. Les re ´sultats obtenus confe `rent a ` la proce ´dure d’e ´valuation des valeurs ‘satisfaisantes’ voire ‘bonnes’. Nous avons pu de ´montrer que les jeunes pre ´sentant un risque plus e ´leve ´ de de ´crochage, ont e ´value ´ leurs A. Frey (&) HdBA University of Applied Labour Studies, Seckenheimer Landstraße 16, 68163 Mannheim, Germany e-mail: andreas.frey@hdba.de L. Balzer SFIVET Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Kirchlindachstrasse 79, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland e-mail: lars.balzer@ehb-schweiz.ch J.-J. Ruppert AVOPP Applied Vocational Psychology and Policy Research Unit, 8, Rue Joseph Wester, 4349 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg e-mail: jean-jacques.ruppert@education.lu 123 Int J Educ Vocat Guidance (2014) 14:119–134 DOI 10.1007/s10775-013-9257-8