Forum 5
Qualification perspectives for small and medium-sized companies
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) provide more than 70 per cent of all training places and are thus an indispensable pillar in Germany's vocational education and training system.
However, because they provide specialised training they are frequently not able to provide training for broad occupational profiles on their own. For this reason, inter-company vocational training centres have been supplementing the in-company training of small companies in particular for decades. Seen from an economic and education policy standpoint, it would be in Germany's interest to put the potential offered by these inter-company vocational training centres to broader use.
Forum 5 will focus on the new tasks that inter-company vocational training centres carry out in their capacity as education service providers for SMEs. It will also analyse human resources development in SMEs, present government programmes for fostering and supporting training and invite participants to share their ideas on in-company vocational training.
The main focus of this forum will be on:
- Inter-company vocational training centres
The particular strength of inter-company vocational training centres lies in their familiarity with company operations, their qualified instruction personnel and their state-of-the-art equipment. Forum 5 will explore opportunities for making even wider and more efficient use of this potential in future and for establishing inter-company vocational training centres as centres for education, knowledge and innovation. - Training in SMEs
Human resources development in SMEs and the strengths and problems seen in human resources development will be analysed with the help of research findings. - Public funding
Programmes for the funding of human resources development and training both in and for SMEs will be presented. - Exchange of information on experience with in-company training
Companies will explain how they conduct their training and how they deal with problems that arise in this connection.
