In the project, value orientations are studied in the context of the initial years of the work career. The question raised is how and what training and work biographical experiences in adolescence and young adulthood codetermine the development and socialization of value orientations. We examine whether, and how, value orientations, as well as vocational training and work experience, affect a young person’s career, both in work and outside of work. In addition, the project examines whether there has been a shift in values among business trainees in the period from 1987 to 1997. The issue studied is how such a shift in values is related to changing conditions affecting job training and training experiences. In order to differentiate life-cycle and cohort effects, both a quantitative longitudinal study over a time span of ten years and a cross-sectional study of trainees (1987 and 1997) were carried out. In addition, work is currently in progress on an in-depth, qualitative interview study with approximately 20 persons selected from the ten-year panel. The transition phase from training to life on the job can also be studied using longitudinal data from Core Project AEQUAS (3 years, 3 questionnaires). The (partly identical) questionnaires serve to tap the following characteristic areas: value orientation, expectations with regard to work, identification with company values, evaluation of work conditions, satisfaction with training or job, well being, achievement motivation, control beliefs (internal/external), factors in one’s life situation – both at work and outside of work, biographical facts with regard to job and training, stereotypes of the roles of men and women, models of the ideal family and job, expectations with regard to future work career, and future job plans. (1) Longitudinal study: In 1987, all 16- to 18-year-old bank and office apprentices in a large Swiss bank in German-speaking Switzerland (N = 980) filled out a written questionnaire. In 1992, the same persons (N = 444, response rate 55%) were surveyed. In 1997, the third survey took place (sent to 660 addresses of persons in the original 1987 sample, N = 352, response rate 55%). And in the fall of 1998, qualitative interviews will be conducted with a sub-sample of approximately 20 persons. (2) Cross-sectional study: In a large Swiss bank, surveys of all business bank apprentices were carried out in 1987 (N=980) and in 1997 (N=758). We now have data from both German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. (3) Longitudinal study of the Core Project: The first survey was conducted in 1997 with approximately 1500 Swiss youth in 5 skilled trade areas at the end of their apprenticeships at their vocational schools (bank business employee, electronics, sales, nursing, cook). The second survey, by mail, is in progress now in the summer of 1998. The third survey is planned for 1999. Initial findings of the studies (1) and (2) above indicate that there has been little change in the relative importance of individual value orientations, both longitudinally and in the cross-section. Good social relationships are the most important to young employees, followed by (in descending order of importance) partnership and family, training and job career, social adaptation and security, material well being, social participation and change, social prestige and power. Young employees rated artistic-creative self-development as the least important. Thus, changes in the periods of five and ten years show only relative shifts within a value system that is on the whole quite stable. Some of the questions have already been examined in more detail. Unpublished congress manuscripts and journal contributions have been prepared.