Print version Recommend this page Press release
10/ 2005
Bonn, 10.03.2005
The future of vocational education and training in Germany: the view of the experts
The number of newly concluded training contracts has increased in 2004 - but that does not (yet) mean that the problems on the training places market have been solved: There are still fewer company training contracts than in the year 1999. At the same, the demand among young people for dual courses of vocational education and training is unbroken - and this applies not only to the current cohort of school leavers. Those who had to sidestep into alternative education and training pathways due to the lack of company training places are also trying their luck year after year on the training places market as "repeat applicants": Among the young people placed in alternative education and training pathways by the Federal Employment Services in 2004, the number of those maintaining their wish to be placed in vocational education and training has increased by 2000 compared to the year before. The total number of "repeat applicants" has thus increased to 48,700 01.
Satisfying this unbroken demand for company training places will therefore be a substantial challenge to the dual system of vocational education and training for years to come. At the same time it must be stated that the drop in employment opportunities, rising unemployment and displacements in the structure of the economy have a negative impact on the willingness of the enterprises to provide training. This implies that the coupling of in-company training with the labour market and the employment system has not only advantages. So how can we safeguard the future of vocational education and training in Germany? What are the current problems in detail - for enterprises, young people, politics? Which approaches to solving these problems are under discussion - and how should they be implemented? These and many other questions were topics of the Symposium on "The future of vocational education and training in Germany - Empirical studies and conclusions" organised by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). Experts from the Chambers, from company training practice and from vocational education and training research were invited to jointly discuss the difficult situation on the training places market, both from the point of view of providers of VET and of those expressing demand for it.
The Proceedings of the Symposium, now published by the BIBB, present the research results and analyses as well as conclusions based on them in detail. The volume starts with a general description of the situation of dual vocational education and training in Germany and of the European requirements put on the national vocational education and training systems. This is followed by texts on
- vocational education and training from the providers' point of view, for example
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- on costs and benefits of in-company training
- possibilities of increasing and consolidating the willingness of enterprises to provide training
- vocational education and training from the point of view of those expressing demand for it, for example on
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- application and demand behaviour of young people
- training inclination of young people
- vocational education and training from the point of view of educational policy, for example on
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- new demands on vocational training policy
- measures of the Federal government for safeguarding training and modernising vocational education and training.
The publication by Elisabeth M. Krekel and Günter Walden (eds.): "The future of vocational education and training in Germany - Empirical studies and conclusions"
costs € 21.90 and can be obtained from W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach 10 06 33, D-33506 Bielefeld, Phone: 0521/911 01-11, Fax: 0521/911 01-19, e-mail: service@wbv.de
Please refer also to two articles in issue 1/2005 of the BIBB journal "Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis (BWP)" dealing with the current situation on the training places market
- Helmut Pütz: "Die Kehrseite der Medaille"
- Joachim Gerd Ulrich; Simone Flemming; Ralf-Olaf Granath; Elisabeth M Krekel: "Trotz Zuwachs bei den Ausbildungsverträgen noch keine Entlastung auf dem Ausbildungsstellenmarkt"
The issue costs € 7.90 and can also be obtained from the above-mentioned W. Bertelsmann Verlag.
