Abstract The present dissertation “Between the training of exercise instructors and the education of sports teacher” describes three dual-qualification sports courses between 1976 and 2010 in the state of NW: the integrated “Leisure sporting director (full time)/AHR” course at secondary schools (1976-1986) or “AHR/(leisure sporting director) (sport, biology)” at vocational colleges (1996 to present), the additive “Specialist sporting director/AHR” course at grammar schools (1976-1986) and the integrative “Trainer for popular sports/AHR” course (1986-2006) or “Trainer-C/ AHR” course at secondary schools with preparatory college level and grammar schools (2007-present). The courses’ prototypical academic models are conceptually researched and documented for general and vocational learning in upper secondary education. The paper identifies developments and modifications from the definitive beginnings in 1976 to 2010, and describes course continuity and change in the context of legitimacy in educational administration (NW Ministry for Education and Culture) and sports-policy management (NW State Sports Confederation). The dual-qualification integrated “Leisure sporting director/AHR” course offered at secondary schools between 1976 and 1986 is distinguished by successful integration of general and career-based education, combining study-oriented and vocational learning. The main subject (“teaching methods in sports education”), extracurricular internships, work experience and demonstration lessons emphasise the vocational component of the course, and successfully facilitate the role change “from student to teacher” intended in the qualification process. As part of their training, leisure sporting directors acquire sports and career-based skills (professional and methodological competence), as well as personal skills such as initiative, social skills and conflict resolution. The introduction of vocational colleges in 1999 change the structure of the dual-qualification “AHR (leisure sporting director) (sport, biology)” course; abolition of the didactic planning criterion regarding the interdisciplinary nature of core subjects in career-based general learning is a qualitative loss. Although the classes in the dual-qualification “Specialist sporting director/AHR” course offered at grammar schools between 1976 and 1986 with 6 hours a week in the major subject of sport and 3 additional hours a week for the double qualification seek to combine theory with practice and achieve interdisciplinary learning between the subjects, content-related adjustments are limited to the six-hour major subject of sport and the three-hour additional course. Basic courses and majors cannot be specifically interlinked due to the framework layout and the status of the major subject (sport) in upper secondary education. The vocational internships as places of learning for the role change seem false, and the additional three-hour class also proves to be very time-consuming for students of the dual-qualification “Specialist sporting director/AHR” course. Apart from resulting in a certificate of secondary school completion and tertiary entrance (AHR), the dual-qualification integrative “Trainer for popular sports/AHR” course or “Trainer-C/AHR” course” at comprehensive schools and grammar schools also seeks to provide a vocational qualification enabling students to engage in extracurricular activities as well as have the opportunity to choose a university course. To accentuate the career-based component, the stipulated AHR-focused sports-major content is coupled with mandatory training content set by the NW State Sports Confederation and other educational training elements such as extracurricular internships, work experience and demonstration lessons in the major subject of sport. The dual-qualification “Trainer-C/AHR” course pools many new practical sports experiences, and seeks to build on reflection and judgement skills, and develop basic attitudes and behaviours for academic/scientific work. However, the major subject of sports engineering means there are not enough opportunities to address content in a more advanced context. It is not possible to further problematise the course’s intended role change “from student to teacher” due to the low number of allotted hours. Research conducted from 1976 to 2010 shows that all dual-qualification sports courses undergo “metamorphoses” in their structural developments from their early days to the present. Two significant factors determine the content and structure of the respective courses: - Changes resulting from new decisions made by the NW Ministry for Education and Culture in relation to educational administration, and - The influences of sports-policy management by the NW State Sports Confederation Decisions made by the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) between 1990 and 1999, decrees enacted by the NW Ministry for Education and Culture, ordinances and administrative regulations issued by the district government and new curriculums in subsequent years have a significant impact on the content and organisational structure of the dual-qualification “AHR/(Leisure sporting director) (sport, biology) course. The “Ordinance on training and assessments in vocational college courses (APO-BK)” is enacted in 1999, and is followed in 2006 by the “Curriculums for trialling vocational college courses”, which lead to a vocational qualification under state law and a certificate of secondary school completion and tertiary entrance (AHR). The new specialised sport syllabus for vocational colleges in the state of NW from 2006 onwards also changes the course’s profile. Making matters more difficult is the content intensification and restriction on subject matter resulting from general Abitur (German school-leaving certificate) regulations in 2007. Trends arising in the 1980s, which see fewer and fewer trained sports teachers with university degrees obtain employment in the public sector, instead being forced into alternative fields, lead to a change in thinking in educational administration, and a gradual withdrawal from the pilot project for specialist sporting directors. Introduction of the New Sports Directives in 1980/81, with their mandatory restrictive organisational models 6:0 or 4:2, no longer permits a wide range of specialised sports in the course, resulting in a loss of individuality. The lack of recognition in the licensing structures of the Deutscher Sportbund (DSB) and Landessportbund (LSB) sports organisation proves to be problematic., and there are ongoing complaints about licences being denied by professional and sports associations at the LSB for specialist sporting directors. The dual-qualification “Specialist sporting director/AHR” course is abolished in 1986. The profile of the dual-qualification “Trainer for popular sports/AHR” course from 1986, known as the “Trainer-C/AHR” course in 2007, also undergoes structural changes as a result of administrative regulations. While the development phases of 1986-1998 still involve integrative didactic course profile planning and content co-ordination between school, ministers of education and culture, and the LSB, essential elements of the “Trainer-C/AHR” course are relinquished by virtue of the new regulations and sports curriculums for upper secondary education in 1999, the reduction of the major subject (sport) to 5 hours a week, and the subsequent introduction of the mandatory combination of mathematics and sport for the Abitur (German school-leaving certificate). During the 1990s, the LSB, as a partner of the major subject (sport), also releases a series of new, modified mandatory approaches to trainer qualifications and amended framework conditions, which entail establishing new didactic sports course profiles in the interests of the dual qualification. The LSB’s training approach to dual qualifications changes, and it gradually abandons its responsibility for the dual-qualification “Trainer-C/AHR” course.