Print version Recommend this page Press release
23/ 2005
Bonn, 09.06.2005
Degree Level Qualification in Business Administration and Management in the Health System - a new career offer for medical and veterinary assistants and dental assistants
Medical and veterinary assistants and dental assistants start off full of enthusiasm in their dream careers, only to leave in disappointment after only a few years in the profession. One reason for this is that these occupations, especially popular amongst young women, offer virtually no opportunities for professional development, this being especially true in the case of medical and veterinary assistants. At the same time, the need for skilled workers to help bear the brunt of the changed conditions in the health sector is obvious. New care structures, the shift from the in-patient to the out-patient area, an increased development in joint surgeries and modern surgery management also place different qualification requirements on the surgery assistants. These altered qualification requirements have until now scarcely been taken into consideration in continuing training provision for medical and veterinary assistants and dental assistants.
This gap is now being closed with a modular continuing training concept, developed jointly by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) and representatives from Dentists and Medical Associations and Employers' Associations 01 . This offers those completing vocational education and training in the three medical assistant occupations the opportunity of achieving qualification for management, personnel and administrative tasks, particularly in large organisations within the health and social services system as well as in the area of Veterinary Medicine, and obtaining a degree level qualification in Business Administration and Management in the Health System.
The qualification concept comprises a total of 800 hours. It includes six professional action and competence fields (modules), the achievement of which is examined and certified on an individual basis:
- Planning and Communication
- Personnel and Training Management
- Company Accounting and Financial Systems
- Quality and Project Management
- Operational Company Management
- Information and Communication Technologies.
In order to provide the large number of women in particular working in the occupations named with the opportunity of structuring the continuing training according to the time available to them, all modules can be studied individually in any chronological order and in any order of priority. The only exception to this is the "Planning and Communication" module. This is a preliminary module intended to ensure that all participants begin the continuing training at a comparable starting level.
The continuing training concept was piloted with specialist support from the BIBB within the framework of a pilot project of the Schleswig-Holstein Regional Medical Association, using the example of the occupation of medical assistant for the trial. Parallel to this, a specialist council instituted at the BIBB examined the transference possibilities of the results of the pilot project to the continuing training of dental assistants and veterinary assistants. This pre-liminary work was ultimately used as the basis of the development of the continuing training concept submitted for the "degree level qualification in Business Administration and Management in the Health System" for the three dual medical and assistant occupations. In accordance with § 46.1 of the Vocational Training Act (BBiG), the concept is currently being implemented within association regulations (Westphalia-Lippe Dentists' Associa-tion, Schleswig-Holstein Regional Medical Association) and will be offered from 2005 in both association regions as upgrading training.
For the medical and veterinary assistants as well as for the dental assistants, the new continuing training concepts represents not only an improvement in the vertical and horizontal promotion and transfer possibilities within the occupational field. At the same time, the new training course offers a way out of the vocational and educational cul-de-sac of the three medical and assistant occupations. Because the level of qualification is comparable with that of master craftsmen and women, specialised experts and technicians, new career routes can result, opening up ac-cess to studies in such areas as business management, health and social services management and education.
The plan is to validate the vocational qualifications and skills acquired in the continuing training to "degree level qualification in Business Administration and Management in the Health System" by means of a university-level compatible quality performance credit point system, thus offering credits towards access to further university-level educational offers. The aim is to link up initial and continuing vocational education and training for the dual medical and assistant occupations in a systematic way and to extend this into the area of tertiary education, providing a further improvement in the opportunities for professional development in occupations which are predominantly held by women.
The contact partner for the continuing training concept "degree level qualification in Business Administration and Management in the Health System" at the BIBB is Gisela Mettin, Tel.: 0228/107-2331,
e-mail: mettin@bibb.de
