Since corporations are increasingly relying on team work and at the same time utilizing communication and cooperation technology (cf. Salas et al., 2000, S. 339), they request the corresponding skills from future employees (cf. Kirschner, 2004, S. 40; McLoughlin & Luca, 2002, S. 572). Vocational education as a major track into employment within a corporation has to meet these new demands. As one possibility to develop the necessary skills for work in the networked society, traditional group work has been frequently employed in vocational education (cf. Euler & Walzik, 2007). However, virtual teams have rarely been studied in the context of vocational education (for a notable exception see Hämäläinen et al., 2008). Additionally, the teams have mostly been studied under the scope of pedagogical theories, however, relevant insights from research on virtual teams has hardly been used (an exception can be found with Kreijns et al., 2007). In the current study, virtual teams comprised of team members involved in vocational education were studied. The participants of the study had just started their so called apprenticeship in vocational education which consists of working and studying within a company (in this case a German telecommunication company), as well as going to school for some periods of time. The virtual team project was part of their work and study time while being in the company. In total, 94 groups of 4 to 6 team members were studied.
