Background: The ASCOT research initiative funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research had the objective to measure vocational competencies in high-quality jobs. To adequately assess these it is important to offer authentic situations, similar to real-life (working) situations. Whether domain-specific problem-solving competencies are a unidimensional or a multidimensional construct has far reaching implications in vocational education e.g., regarding valid assessment of performance in the final exam at the end of vocational training. This article deals with the structure of problemsolving competencies of electronics technicians for automation technology at the end of their apprenticeship. Methods: Realistic problems with the focus on professional activities such as programming (constructive problem-solving) and troubleshooting a programmable logic controller (analytical problem-solving) were employed to measure domain-specific problem-solving competencies. Based on the results structural equation models were calculated and different models are compared for goodness of fit with consideration to content knowledge and fluid intelligence as predictors. Results: Our results document a two-dimensional structure of domain-specific problem-solving consisting of an analytical and a constructive dimension. This twodimensional structure remains stable even if content knowledge and fluid intelligence are included as predictors for the domain specific problem-solving competencies (Figs. 1, 5, 6). Only knowledge areas, which are relevant to the problem-solving situation, were predictive for the analytical and constructive problem-solving competencies. Fluid intelligence has a direct effect on both domain-specific problem-solving competencies but the influence is considerably lower when compared to relevant content knowledge. Conclusion: Based on these findings the final exam at the end of the apprenticeship needs to enclose an appropriate amount of both subdimensions of domain-specific problem-solving competencies. As a practical implication both dimensions have to be supported in addition to the teaching of content knowledge. © 2016 The Author(s).
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