The University of Kassel, the Department of Economics, the Institute of Vocational Education and the Department of Vocational and Business Education congratulate Dr. Katrin Arianta on winning second place in the "Vocational Education Research in Social Responsibility" science award. The aim of this award is to recognize research work "that combines practically relevant challenges with scientific theory in a special way" (https://www.gesellschaftliche-berufsbildungsforschung.de/).

Dr. Arianta received the prize for her dissertation entitled "The social-interactive learning process of the development of nursing aspirations in the initial phase of nursing training in the confrontation with intentions to stay and leave: A qualitative longitudinal study" in which she explored the question of how nursing trainees develop ideas about their own professional future and why these young people decide to stay or not to stay in their chosen nursing profession. To answer this research question, Dr. Arianta conducted a qualitative longitudinal study with several data collection points in the first year of training of prospective nurses and developed a model based on the empirical findings to explain the intentions of nursing students to stay and leave the profession. In addition, she was able to identify and describe four prototypical trajectories of the development of nursing career aspirations at the beginning of training. Empirically, the work provides evidence that the social context of the training (i.e. the working atmosphere in the practical nursing field) and the professional development opportunities (i.e. learning on the job) have a major influence on the development of intentions to stay and leave.

Dr. Katrin Arianta worked and completed her doctorate at the Department of Vocational and Business Education at the University of Kassel until the end of September 2025 and is now professionally active as a teacher at a nursing school in Kassel. The thesis was supervised by Dr. Juliane Dieterich (Department of Vocational Education Nursing/Health), Prof. Dr. Ute Clement (former Department of Vocational and Business Education) and, at the end of the doctoral phase, by Prof. Dr. Michael Goller (Department of Vocational and Business Education).

The science prize was awarded this week at the Hochschultage Berufliche Bildung (HTBB) in Paderborn. Dr. Arianta shares the well-deserved second place with Dr. Lena Sachse from the University of Osnabrück. First place went to Dr. Stefan Nagel from the University of Hanover and third place to Dr. Anne Wagner from the University of Bamberg. We would also like to congratulate the other prize winners!

Dr. Arianta's dissertation was published by Springer VS Verlag at the beginning of this year under the short title "Zwischen Bleibe- und Ausstiegsintentionen. Die Entwicklung pflegeberuflicher Aspirationen bei Pflegeauszubildenden im ersten Ausbildungsjahr" and can be downloaded or purchased on the publisher's website: link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-47025-8.