Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

Vocational education and training law reform - new impetus after 35 years

The Vocational Training Reform Act, in effect since 1st April 2005, places vocational education and training in Germany on a new footing and permits greater flexibility and openness to new challenges. The purpose of the reform is to ensure and improve youth training opportunities and the high quality of vocational training for all young people The latest edition of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) journal "BWP - Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis" (Vocational Training in Research and Practice) is devoted to that topic. This issue of BWP gives an overview of the principal revisions of the Act, asks prominent vocational training experts what is in the new Act for them and what they see as the main tasks in implementing it, and finally publishes initial reflections on its implementation in priority areas such as the examination system and full-time vocational schools.

In his commentary "Vocational education and training law reform - new impetus for vocational training after 35 years"    the President of the BIBB, Prof. Dr. Helmut Pütz, welcomes the coming into force of the Act and stresses that it provides more flexibility, openness and development potential for vocational education and training and for the BIBB.

• The contribution by Thomas Sondermann (head of the department for "Vocational Training Legislation, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training" at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research) gives a first-hand report on the revisions.
  
  The Vocational Training Reform Act of 2005: What is new and different? (in German) 

Summary: The German dual system of vocational education and training is accepted world-wide. To keep it that way, not only must vocational training keep pace with current challenges but the laws must do so as well. The Vocational Training Reform Act has extensively revised and merged the Vocational Training Act of 1969 and the Vocational Training Promotion Act of 1981. The purpose of the reform is to ensure and improve youth training opportunities and the high quality of vocational education and training for all young people, irrespective of their social or regional origins. The Act came into force on 1st April 2005. The principal innovations are presented in the article.

• Johanna Mölls (head of the BIBB department for "Legal affairs, legal aspects of vocational education and training, Organisation") explains what has changed for the BIBB.
  
  The Vocational Training Reform Act: Innovations for the BIBB in organisational structure, performance of tasks and funding.(in German)  

Summary: The new Vocational Training Act (BBiG) has absorbed the stipulations concerning the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) that were contained in the Vocational Training Promotion Act. It formulates the tasks of the Federal Institute more clearly and flexibly and supplements them by the possibility of advertising for commissions. In addition it changes the organisational structure by reducing the size and number of organs. The tasks of the former Steering Committee and the former Standing Committee are consolidated in a new Board. The number of members is reduced from the present 53 to 29 persons. A Research Council advises the Federal Institute on matters of research. The question of the funding of the Federal Institute is clarified.

• "Three Views on the Reform" are expressed in an interview conducted by BWP with the vocational education and training experts Dr. Elmar Schulz-Vanheyden, State Secretary in the Ministry of Schools, Youth and Children of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf, Dr. Ursula Herdt, Head of the Vocational Training and Continuing Training Executive Section of the GEW Central Executive Board, Frankfurt a.M., and Günther Hohlweg, Head of Siemens Professional Education (SPE), Siemens Berufsausbildung, Munich.
  
  "Three Views on the Reform" - interview conducted by BWP (in German)
  
  Summary: The new Vocational Training Act (BBiG) came into force just in time for the new training year. "BWP - Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis" asked three vocational training experts what they got out of the new Act and what they see as the principle tasks in implementing it in their respective fields of competence. They belong to the twenty experts who answered the questions of the members of the Bundestag Committee for Education, Research and Assessment of the Consequences of Technology on 22 November 2004. Two of the experts are at the same time members of the (old) Steering Committee of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training.
  

Other articles deal, for example, with the changes in the examination system, the status of full-time vocational schools in the new Act, possibilities of initial vocational education and training abroad and part-time vocational training for young mothers.

You will find an overview of the interesting articles in this edition under www.bibb.de/de/18139.htm.

The journal costs € 7.90 and can be obtained from W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach 10 06 33, D-33506 Bielefeld, Phone: 0049-521/91101-11, Fax: 0049-521/91101-19, e-mail: service@wbv.de