New options for assisting disadvantaged persons in the vocational training system?
Training modules improve chance of finding a training place
URN: urn:nbn:de:0035-0074-6
Steps are being taken to make it easier for young people in general - and youths with social disadvantages or learning difficulties in particular - to embark on a course of vocational training. These efforts revolve around "training modules" which are to help individuals earn basic subject-related qualification on a targeted basis. Can this new form of in-company vocational qualification solve the vocational training problems of disadvantaged young people making the transition from school to the vocational training system?
1. The target group - Disadvantaged young people
The term "disadvantaged" is used to designate those young people who have completed their mandatory schooling but have no occupational prospects and no training place or job. These individuals have not been successful in finding the training they want. Many of them do not (yet) have the maturity or basic education necessary for successfully completing a course of vocational training. In many cases, they do not have sufficient "occupational competence" - in other words, the ability to cope with and solve tasks and problems by oneself, on one's own responsibility, properly and professionally - to build goal-oriented (occupational) prospects for themselves.
In this connection, disadvantages frequently arise as a result of:
- Family situation or social environment,
- Ethnic or cultural origin,
- Gender differences,
- Societal or economic conditions.
Common to all disadvantaged young people is the fact that they have difficulties making the transition from school to occupation and they will foreseeably not find suitable training and / or work without targeted support.
2. Assistance for disadvantaged individuals in the vocational training system
The occupational prospects of disadvantaged young people can be improved with the help of various forms of assistance such as vocational guidance, vocational preparation and the like.
To date, adolescents and young adults with no formal vocational qualification could choose from three primary routes to prepare themselves for the working world:
- Vocational preparation schemes with different areas of focus which the Federal Employment Agency working in conjunction with education providers uses to assist nearly 150,000 young people each year.
- School-level pre-vocational training offered primarily in (vocational) schools. Examples of these include training preparation, the pre-vocational training year and the basic vocational training year. Differences in the way this training is regulated exist, depending upon the individual state's legislation. Every year more than 75,000 young people in Germany undergo a pre-vocational training year with the aim of preparing themselves for vocational training.
- At municipal level, additional pre-vocational training activities with a socio-educational approach are conducted at educational institutions and social services facilities as part of the youth work being done under the Child and Youth Services Act.
The challenge here is to better link pre-vocational training with vocational training. This development goes back to the resolutions adopted in 1999 by the Initial and Continuing Training task group set up by the Alliance for Jobs, Training and Competitiveness.
Recent years have seen a growing emphasis on teaching occupation-related technical content in pre-vocational training courses. As a result, these activities incorporate a greater amount of in-company learning.
The objective here has been to teach technical skills that the individual needs alongside key skills in order to find a job or be able to embark successfully upon a course of vocational training.
3. Changes in the legal framework for assisting disadvantaged individuals
The assistance provided for disadvantaged individuals needs overhauling for a number of reasons. Many innovative approaches to improving the situation ("maze of different measures") are being tested.
A number of movements have thus started rolling and signal the coming of structural changes in assistance provided to support the disadvantaged.
In addition, the Second Act on Modern Services in the Labour Market ("Hartz II") also brought about a variety of reforms at the legislative level.
Training preparation
Training preparation was added to Germany's Vocational Training Act (Section 1, Paras. 1 and 1a). It is now an integral part of the vocational training system - alongside vocational training, further vocational training and vocational retraining. This has raised the importance of vocational assistance that is provided prior to vocational training. The introduction of training modules to pre-vocational training has had a knock-on effect for structural changes in assistance for disadvantaged individuals in the vocational training system.
Training modules
The basic vocational competence that the individual acquires in the course of training preparation can be certified by the training provider (Section 51 of the Vocational Training Act). This practice brings the targeted use of training modules to the foreground. Certification is regulated by the BAVBVO (ordinance on the certification of the fundamentals of vocational proficiency in the context of preparation for vocational education and training).
Training modules can be viewed as a core element of efforts to reform the structure of assistance provided to support disadvantaged individuals in the vocational training system. Training modules are to lead young people step by step to formal training or employment. The assistance process emphasizes technical qualification. With training modules, the individual starts acquiring skills - for which he or she receives written documentation and a certificate on their performance during the courses - even before the begin of any formal vocational training. The transparency that this documentation and certification brings to technical qualifications is to ensure they can be put to use on the training or job market and improve the technical and content-based quality of vocational (training) preparation schemes. The documentation or certification of the technical skills that the individual has acquired is to provide evidence of his or her vocational career and give substance to the designation of his or her formal qualification. This will facilitate access to the training or job market because it gives companies that will potentially provide the individual's vocational training a picture of what he or she can do. Ideally, this will also make it possible to count this training toward the subsequent vocational training.
Features of training modules
Training modules used in schemes to prepare individuals for vocational education and training contain parts of the technical training offered for recognized occupations. These modules are used to teach occupational competence and are organized into learning units that:
- Enable the individual to perform a particular job or practice a particular occupation;
- Draw on the framework curriculum;
- Comprise 140 - 420 full hours of instruction;
- Are concluded with an assessment of the individual's performance (Section 3 of the BAVBVO).
Training module providers can develop modules themselves following the provisions on so-called skill profiles outlined in Section 3, Para. 2 of the BAVBVO and subsequently uses these modules in the training process with young people. The provider may officially certify that the respective skill profile complies with the requirements set forth in Section 3 of the BAVBVO. This certification further reinforces the written proof that the training's objective was accomplished (Section 7, BAVBVO).
Documentation of skills acquired
The highly formal character of the certification of the skills acquired by the individual is a new development. The legal provisions set forth in the BAVBVO lay down for the first time how skills acquired in vocational preparation schemes are to be certified. A copy of the skill profile must be attached to the individual's certificate of performance (diploma) or certificate of attendance.
At national level, Germany has had a "certificate of job-related skills" to date. Developed by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training, this certificate was adopted at the recommendation of the Institute's Steering Committee on November 23, 2000.
Involving companies
Another objective behind the decision to include training preparation in the Vocational Training Act was to expand the means available to structure the transition from school to the working world. Companies (that provide vocational training) are to play a more active role in training young people who need special support. Firms can do this either as an alternative or in addition to offering training places.
Young people who are willing to undergo vocational training can sign a "skilling agreement" with a company. This agreement provides the framework for teaching the industrial skills and knowledge necessary for a particular occupation.
- As a result, participants are incorporated into operational practice early on, making it possible for them to experience training and work first-hand. Being actively involved in the reality of a particular occupation can boost the individual's motivation to learn and work
- For the companies involved, this process offers the opportunity to conduct an intensive "preliminary screening" of potential trainees in the course of this newly designed learning process for technical skills and knowledge.
The companies providing this training can also ask for socio-educational support to ensure the individual's personality development and for assistance in personal matters (Section 421 of Social Code III).
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