Forum 1
Strategies to secure training, continuing training and occupational competence
On the first day of the forum, two introductory presentations aimed at stimulating discussion will outline the social and technological developments which are likely to ensue during the course of the next two decades. This will be followed by a discussion of the possible structural implications these developments could have for vocational education and training. This will provide the starting point for working groups which will meet on the second day to explore the theme of the forum "Strategies to secure training, continuing training and occupational competence" in greater depth from their own differing perspectives on the basis of current research results, information and discussions with vocational education and training experts.
Company training activities must be stepped up if we are to avert the already foreseeable shortage of skilled workers that the future will bring. The aim of state structural support programmes such as Jobstarter is to open up new possibilities both for companies not providing training and companies providing training, either to start offering training or to extend their existing training capacities. The effectiveness of the instruments which these programmes have developed for fostering company readiness to provide training will be discussed in one of the working groups.
Despite high unemployment figures, some branches are already exhibiting a structural shortage of skilled workers. The question of how companies are assessing their future skilled worker requirements and what recruitment strategies they are developing in this connection will therefore constitute the main focus of a further working group.
Initial and continuing vocational education and training are the most important prerequisites for an individual's future, his/her chances for employment and his/her integration into and participation in society. This applies in particular to disadvantaged or disabled persons.
For this reason, a further working group will examine the training on offer for these groups of persons from the perspective of the VET policy criteria of compatibility and permeability. It will also discuss issues revolving around the concepts behind and day-to-day practice of vocational training for disadvantaged or disabled persons in Germany, in the context of existing European agreements on disability mainstreaming.
The explosive nature of this topic is reflected in the controversial debate which flares up time and again, be it in light of the scarcity of in-company training places in Germany's 'dual' vocational training system or in light of the declining willingness to participate in continuing vocational training. The working group "National and international funding models for initial and continuing vocational education and training" will therefore be taking a look beyond Germany's borders with the aim of encouraging a shift in participants' possibly ingrained points of view.
New ideas for securing training, continuing training and occupational competence are already being tested in pilot projects. Forum 1 will therefore provide insights into and stimulate debate on the current status of the development, piloting and sustained validation of innovative concepts for open-structured training occupations, new training concepts for the individual's occupational development and the attendant opportunities for VET permeability in connection with work-process-oriented continuing vocational training.
