Given the expectations towards workers as writers, the need for lifelong learning and flexible career paths in a globalizing world, professional writing is a key competence in vocational training which should be sufficiently considered in previous general education.

Using a variety of methods (stakeholder interviews, document analysis, coding of text quality, statistical tests) the following article analyses a broad book-body of empirical data in order to answer the following research questions: (1) how good is the fit between companies’ requirements and graduates’ writing skills when leaving secondary education? (2) Which school tracks are relevant for learning vocational genres and (3) which sub-skills seem to be especially important for professional writing?

Results show a clear gap between executives’ high expectations towards apprentices’ competencies in the German vocational training system and their insufficient and maladapted previous formation. Nevertheless students’ performances seem to be better as yearly publications in public media would suggest.

This non-satisfying picture of the current situation of teaching professional writing in vocational training cannot be solely explained by the lack of time, one argument that is often put forward. Rather, it seems promising to enhance teachers’ and students’ declarative and procedural knowledge through context sensitive approaches to professional writing.