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Efforts to innovate tertiary education programs in the field of popular music should be based on a deeper understanding of the profession. This premise in turn requires empirical findings on the predominant job profiles as well as the respective challenges and relevant professional skills. In this dissertation, the central aspects of pre-vocational pop training programs and the professional musician labor market in Germany were therefore examined, in order to subsequently present findings on prototypical requirements specific to this field of work. The central research question of the thesis was which parameters a career-preparatory training in the field of popular music should be oriented towards in order to enable future professional musicians to acquire a sustainable competency architecture. In order to answer this question, a method-integrated approach was used, whereby a quantitative preliminary study was first carried out, based on research from the classical sector (cf. Gembris & Langner, 2005). The sample (n = 159) contained alumni of artistic or artistic/pedagogical courses in Germany; the data were collected by means of an online questionnaire and analyzed descriptively. This was followed by a qualitative main study, in the course of which semi-structured expert interviews were conducted. The sample included alumni of different tertiary education courses (n = 9) as well as experts from the field of education (n = 5) and the musician labor market (n = 4). The data were evaluated by means of qualitative content analysis. Initially, it became apparent that courses in the field of pop music, especially those at so called Musikhochschulen, have a strong focus on artistic training, while they show deficits in the area of professionalization and career orientation. This is problematic with regard to career propaedeutics, since the empirical results make clear that it is also non-musical skills that are considered to be extremely important for success in the professional field. In addition to various business and entrepreneurial skills, emotion-based, personal and social-communicative competence facets are of central relevance. These are mainly in the area of accurate self-assessment, adequate self-regulation and self-motivation, creativity and the ability to interact with other people in a competent and goal-oriented manner. Furthermore, the learning paths of pop musicians are very heterogeneous compared to their colleagues in the field of European art music. Thus, a combination of informal and formal learning can be seen in more or less formal learning settings. Informal learning often takes the form of peer learning and autodidactic learning. In view of the central role in the acquisition of competencies, this variety of learning paths should be embedded in the design of respective curricula. Examining the professional activities performed by the respondents showed them to be engaged in diverse job portfolios. In addition to various artistic activities, these portfolios include above all educational and music-related administrative and entrepreneurial professional activities. In some cases, these are supplemented by extra-musical activities. It can be assumed that a wide-ranging portfolio career is the predominant type of employment in the professional field of popular music. This fact should be taken into account with regard to a broader educational orientation and in order to convey a realistic picture of future job profiles. The aim is not continuous employment at one specific workplace, but rather continuous employability in various sub-areas of the occupational field. A recurring motive in the statements of the interviewees are the diverse challenges that the musicians' labor market offers. Especially the transition from the training institution to the professional field is described as a "jump in at the deep end". In addition, the respondents generally report challenging conditions such as an often precarious income situation, a high workload and difficulties in building a sustainable career as an artist. Through the qualitative survey, it also became apparent that some of the respondents complain of a high stress level, which in some cases has led to mental illness. Accordingly, it seems important to implement aspects of physical and mental self-care in the training of future professional musicians. In this context the cultivation of mindfulness is suggested as a possible path to stress prevention and salutogenesis. At the end of this doctoral thesis a mindfulness-based, integrated model for the curricular design of pop music education courses is presented. This model takes into account the dimensions holism, individualization, occupational field and practice orientation, networking and self-care. The model can be used as a matrix for the development of integrally oriented and occupationally optimized training programs. By taking into account current job profiles and field-specific challenges as well as the individual dispositions, learning paths and needs of the participants, it can be assumed that the practical implementation of this matrix, has the potential to improve graduate employability and lead to higher professional as well as personal well-being.
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