Application
Teacher traineeship
Assigning trainee teachers to training seminars and schools when many constraints apply at once.
The problem
In Germany, newly qualified teachers complete a practical traineeship (Referendariat), an entry-level labour market. Each year, many trainees must be assigned to training seminars and schools. Many constraints apply at once: subject combinations must match a school’s needs, seminars have limited capacity, and personal circumstances such as place of residence or family should be taken into account. If these constraints are handled one after another, assignments easily arise that could be improved by a simple swap.
The procedure
For the conditions in Baden-Württemberg, a Top Trading Cycles mechanism adapted to these multidimensional constraints can be shown to guarantee stable and Pareto-efficient assignments. No one can be made better off without making someone else worse off, and justified claims to a place are not overridden.
In short
- All constraints are considered simultaneously rather than in sequence.
- No swap between two trainees could make both better off.
- Outcomes are transparent and can be explained to those affected.
The analysis is based on a comparison of allocation practice in Hesse and Baden-Württemberg.
Publications
- 1
Contact
Questions about teacher traineeship allocation: [email protected]