The study “Zukunfts- und Berufspläne vor dem Abitur” (ZuBAb) aims to gain a comprehensive insight into the post-school future plans of today’s high school students. It also aims to determine how the realization of these plans can be supported. ZuBAb is a cooperative project between the University of Cologne and the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). infas has been commissioned with the surveys. The study is to be realized by means of six survey waves. The first took place at the beginning of 2018 in selected schools in North Rhine-Westphalia. Respondents answered questions about desired and concretely implemented plans regarding their post-school educational path, education in general, their school and post-school performance, socio-structural characteristics and specific personality traits. By 2024, former students will be invited to participate in online follow-up surveys via email.

In addition to examining general sociological issues related to education, an additional focus is placed on the counseling service “Talentscouting NRW”. This aims to reduce existing social inequalities at the transition from school to university and is implemented at some schools participating in the ZuBAb study.