Print version Recommend this page Press release
24/ 2005
Bonn, 16.06.2005
Not new, but awarded for the first time: credit points in vocational and educational training
Credit points systems are used by technical universities and universities in order to evaluate study performances, thus making it possible to recognise and validate these across the university system and transnationally. In the field of vocational education and training, however, the use of credit points is new. The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) has now shown, in its research project "Credit points in continuing vocational education and training in the IT branch" that they are the right instrument to allow a comparable evaluation of qualifications attained within vocational education and training as well as at university level and that they can promote the interchangeability between academic and non-academic training. The aim of the project was to develop a set of instruments to determine credit points within vocational education and training too and to run a pilot project to test the practicalities of their implementation.
The starting point for the BIBB project was the continuing training system in the IT branch introduced at the beginning of 2002. Building on an IT skilled worker certification, this allows for a systematic and certification-related vocational qualification to be pursued in three stages, from IT Specialist, via IT Operative and culminating in IT Professional status. The certification is at (university) bachelor level in the case of the IT Operative professional stage and the strategic IT Professional stage corresponds to (university) masters level.
In order to ensure the comparability of skills acquired within vocational education and training and those obtained in studying information technology at university level as well as making it possible to validate these skills within the framework of further educational provision (including at university institutions), it was necessary to develop a set of instruments which can be used to evaluate vocational learning and work performance in terms of quantity as well as qualitatively.
The BIBB project "Credit points in continuing vocational education and training in the IT branch", carried out in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and System Technology, dealt paradigmatically with the evaluation of qualifications and skills at the operative IT Professional stage. This process enabled it to be shown,
- that the qualifications and skills of the four operative IT professional stages generally equate to bachelor level,
- that the complex procedure used in the project is suitable for undertaking a qualitative evaluation of qualifications and skills acquired within the work process,
- that this set of instruments makes comparability with qualifications and skills acquired at university level possible,
- that the stages of the procedure are also transferable to other stages of qualification within the continuing vocational education and training system in the IT branch as well as in other occupational areas.
The paradigmatic testing of the evaluation procedure for qualifications acquired within vocational education and training has enabled the BIBB to create the basis for the further development and introduction of a qualitative credit points system encompassing both vocational education and training and university-level education. The broad-based application of such a system would enable individual entry into and transfer between various educational areas through giving credit for existing qualifications and skills. The introduction of a university level compatible credit points system in vocational education and training would thus be a concrete step towards equal validation of vocational and general education.
The BIBB has issued the German-language publication: "Hochschulkompatible Leistungspunkte in der beruflichen Bildung. Grundsteinlegung in der IT-Weiterbildung" ("University compatible credit points in vocational education and training. Creating a basis in continuing vocational education and training in the IT branch"), describing in detail the investigative steps developed in the research project to determine possible equivalencies between qualifications and skills acquired within vocational education and training at university level education and presenting the results of the evaluation on an individual basis.
The German-language publication by Kerstin Mucke and Stefan Grunwald: "Hochschulkompatible Leistungspunkte in der beruflichen Bildung. Grundsteinlegung in der IT-Weiterbildung" ("University compatible credit points in vocational education and training. Creating a basis in continuing vocational education and training in the IT branch") is available at the price of €16.90 from W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Postbox 10 06 33, 33506 Bielefeld, Tel. 0521/911 01-11, Fax: 0521/911 01-19, E-mail: service@wbv.de
Contact partner at the BIBB: Kerstin Mucke, Tel.: 0228/107-1325, E-mail: Mucke@bibb.de
