Print version Recommend this page Press release
45/ 2005
Bonn, 1.12.2005
East Germany - an innovative workshop for the modernisation of the system of vocational education and training in Germany?
Companies providing training, inter-company training centres and vocational schools in East Germany have developed a wide range of cooperative forms of training in recent years, with a view to countering the difficult situation on the training places market by providing innovative solutions. Within the scope of the Training Programme for the East, which is equally funded by the Federal Government and the federal states of East Germany, measures have included the interlinking of external and in-company training paths to create company-related training, and the go-ahead being given for cooperation projects between places of learning within school-based vocational education and training in commercial occupations. The Federal Government alone provided 1.1 million euro in funding between 1993 and 2004. Despite shifting financial and demographic conditions, the plan is to continue to support these cooperative forms of learning in the future. They remain necessary to provide sufficient opportunities for training, they have proved their effectiveness and they represent an innovative approach for the development of vocational education and training in Germany.
Representatives from the academic, political and training provision fields arrived at this joint assessment at the "Between market and support - the effectiveness and future of training structures in East Germany" workshop, organised by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in conjunction with the Halle Centre for Social Research at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (zsh). The main focus of the event was the research projects carried out on various issues by both institutions.
One result of a current BIBB survey was that training participants and training providers took a predominantly positive view of the cooperative training carried out by external company training centres and the high proportion of practical, company related training offered. 01 Confirmation of this positive assessment comes in the form of the pass rate in final examinations, the figure of 80% being above average for the federal states of East Germany as a whole. And events have shown that an above average amount of training taking place within the Training Programme for the East has been in new, modern occupations.
Within this context, the participants in the workshop stressed that the mostly small and often very specialised companies in East Germany taking part in the training of particularly qualified specialist workers are in many ways reliant on the services of training providers.
The current investigation being carried out by the zsh on the future prospects for vocational education and training in the federal states of East Germany and the role of training providers has concluded that there is strong pressure for change. Four out of every five training providers expect a significant fall in demand for services in initial vocational education and training over the next few years, and 70% believe that public financial support will also be reduced in this area. This may well explain why, even today, one in three training providers (35%) is setting up vocational training provision which does not involve public funding. In the future, they see themselves as "modern training services providers", offering closely linked provision of qualifications and advisory services in the field of initial and continuing vocational education and training and in personnel development.
Conclusions of the workshop:
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- The new cooperative training models which have been implemented in East Germany in recent years include important approaches which need to be investigated as to their suitability for the modernisation of vocational education and training.
- Public commitment to vocational education and training will continue to be vital in the future. We need to move towards a new balance between state and company funding, and this process needs to be based on a broad consensus.
The presentation transparencies used at the workshop are available online and can be downloaded under www.bibb.de/de/22097.htm
For further BIBB and zsh results online, please visit www.bibb.de/de/wlk8305.htm
Information on the zsh Project "Future prospects for vocational education and training in the federal states of East Germany and the role of training providers" is available online under www.zsh-online.de/projekte.html
