Print version Recommend this page Press release
38/ 2005
Bonn, 22.09.2005
KIBB - the fast track to vocational education and training research results
The contents and aim of the Internet portal "Communication and Information System for Vocational Education and Training" (KIBB), set up by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and just celebrating its first anniversary, are to collate results of German vocational education and training research, establish central access to these results and to make them available to provide answers to current questions and problems in the field of vocational education and training. KIBB deploys modern information technology to offer rapid and uncomplicated support in finding information from BIBB and from the institutions which have joined forces in the "Vocational Education and Training Research Network Association" (AG BFN). These include BIBB, the university and federal state institutes, institutes run by independent service providers and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).01 The integration of all these institutions into the KIBB portal means that results of current studies being carried out by the major vocational education and training research bodies are gradually being made freely accessible and are available free of charge to anyone seeking comprehensive information about the current state of academic knowledge in the respective areas.
Experts from the fields of research, politics, administration and practice can access the KIBB portal http://www.kibb.de/ and conduct research independently in their chosen topics using the vast resources of the whole of the body of knowledge on vocational education and training research. If, for example, current information relating to the IT continuing training system is required, the keywords "structural process of further training occupations" within the thematic area of "initial and continuing training system" on the KIBB "knowledge map" (http://www.kibb.de/) will enable a wealth of German language material to be accessed presenting the current status of discussion and research on this topic.
Specific enquiries, from federal ministries for example, where complex statistical evaluations are often amongst the information required, are answered by professional knowledge managers working in conjunction with researchers from BIBB. Thus KIBB contributes to the creation of new knowledge and to making this knowledge accessible and public.
The BIBB German language portal http://www.kibb.de/ presents
- a thematically structured knowledge map which
- enables access to the results of around 350 research projects carried out by BIBB as well as phasing in access to AG BFN projects,
- networks and integrates more than 40 information systems relating to selected aspects of vocational education and training,
- automatically adds supplementary information to the existing material about vocational education and training research projects (such as references to BIBB pilot projects); in future, this provision will be expanded to include references to suitable literature on the topics;
- a special enquiry module, which records questions directed to KIBB, documents the answers which are prepared and makes them publicly available as newly acquired knowledge in the KIBB portal in future,
- a forum for the AG BFN providing contact details for all members, which supports the organisation and documentation of any academic conferences which have been held and thus rapidly publicises current research results to all interested academics.
The cooperation between KIBB and AG BFN is the subject of a German language article by Franz Schapfel-Kaiser, Uta Weis and Arnulf Zöller "Wissensmanagement in der Berufsbildungsforschung - KIBB und AG BFN" ("Knowledge management in vocational education and training research - KIBB and AG BFN"), to be published in issue no.5 of the BIBB German language journal "Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis" ("Vocational education and training in science and practice", BWP). BWP 5/2005 will be published at the start of October and is available at the price of €7.90 from W. Bertelsmann Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach 10 06 33, 33506 Bielefeld, Tel. 0521/911 01-11, Fax: 0521/911 01-19, e-mail: service@wbv.de
Information about the latest developments of KIBB can be obtained from the German language newsletter "KIBBrelations", available online under www.kibb.de/rd/wlk8012.htm
For further information about the contents and work of KIBB, see http://www.kibb.de/
