Print version Recommend this page Press release
03/ 2005
Bonn, 18.01.2005
Two Golden Badges of Honour for BIBB!
- Handwerkskammer Koblenz honours president and department head -
- Handwerkskammer Koblenz honours president and department head -Chosen in recognition of their work in the vocational education and training field and their support for numerous training projects, the president of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training ("BIBB") Professor Helmut Pütz and the head of the Structure and Regulation of Vocational Education and Training Department at BIBB, Folkmar Kath, were among the honourees to receive the Handwerkskammer Koblenz's (Koblenz Chamber for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) Golden Badge of Honour on 14 January 2005.01
The Golden Badge of Honour is the highest award conferred by the Handwerkskammer Koblenz. It is traditionally awarded to individuals who have rendered outstanding service in and for the skilled trades.
At the award ceremonies, the president of the Handwerkskammer Koblenz, Karl-Heinz Scherhag, and Director General Dr. Karl-Jürgen Wilbert emphasized the special contributions made by the two BIBB honourees: "We can look back on years of collaboration during which we not only set out on new paths in initial and continuing training but also passed on our day-to-day experience in the trades to the experts at BIBB. This has repeatedly led to improvements and innovations in the training field which have benefited the skilled trades - from the apprentice to the journeyman to the master craftsman."
The speakers drew particular attention to the contributions Professor Helmut Pütz and Folkmar Kath have made to the progressive development of inter-company training facilities - that were originally set up for single trades - into modern skill centres. Linked with one another at technological and institutional level, these skill centres have established the prerequisites necessary for teaching practice-oriented skills needed for working with new technologies, in modern industry and in design, the speakers noted. As both representatives of the Handwerkskammer Koblenz stressed, these skill centres "make an indispensable contribution to reinforcing and boosting competitive strength also and particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises such as those found in the trades field."
Professor Pütz's academic research and education policy work for injecting greater flexibility into vocational education and training have also been of great importance for the work of the skilled trades, the speakers said. This work includes his activities to link initial and continuing vocational training with university degree programmes, his proposals for integrating disadvantaged youths into vocational training programmes and his concepts for fostering young high achievers. All this has "successfully boosted the impact, importance and attractiveness of the vocational education and training system, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises."
Equally important, the speakers noted, is the work Folkmar Kath has done on the costs and benefits of vocational education and training: His studies on vocational education and training's (VET) financial and political value, socio-economic tasks and the burden-sharing aspects have provided an important foundation for potential solutions of socio-political importance. All and all, the "new approaches to VET regulations, education economics and VET facilities which he has developed over the course of some three decades have been pioneering for Germany's VET landscape."
