The 2007 Hermann Schmidt Prize
Focus: Increase the attractiveness and step up the internationalisation of vocational education and training through stays abroad
Only one to two per cent of all trainees in Germany currently complete part of their training in another country. This is not enough by far - particularly when one considers that occupational mobility and specialization are becoming ever more important in the wake of the growing globalization seen in the economy and working world. Today, experience abroad and the acquisition of intercultural skills are an increasingly important - and in some cases even requisite - element of skill profiles not only for management staff but also for skilled workers.
In light of this, the focus of this year's Hermann Schmidt Prize was on increasing the attractiveness and stepping up the internationalization of vocational education and training through longer stays abroad. Projects and initiatives that work with foreign partners in innovative and effective ways to make it possible for trainees to undertake extended stays abroad and improve their intercultural skills were singled out for the award. The Innovative Berufsbildung e.V. association for innovative vocational training established the Hermann Schmidt Prize with the aim of drawing attention to innovative approaches in day-to-day vocational training practice, fostering them and showcasing them as examples worth emulating. The Hermann Schmidt Prize was awarded this year for the eleventh time.
The winners selected from the 32 submissions were:
1st prize (€ 2,000): Steinmetzzentrum Königslutter of the Handwerkskammer Braunschweig (Königslutter Stonemasonry Centre of the Braunschweig Chamber of Skilled Crafts and Small Businesses) for its Europeanization in Region-oriented Skilled Trades project
The Steinmetzzentrum Königslutter, a training centre operated by the Braunschweig Chamber of Skilled Crafts and Small Businesses, is Germany's only recognized skill centre for stonemasonry. The Steinmetzzentrum Königslutter has been working with the world's leading marble-working centre in Carrara, Italy, since 2003 as part of one of the European Union's Leonardo projects. For this project, groups of 12 second or third-year trainees in the stonemasonry and sculpting trades undergo 12 weeks of training in Carrara where they can broaden their knowledge and skills and learn special techniques that cannot be taught in Germany. The training in Italy is entered in the individual's Europass Certificate Supplement for vocational training and the trainee receives full credit for the time spent learning in Carrara. This project meets the training needs of small and medium-sized enterprises in the skilled trades, opens up new opportunities for trainees to earn vocational qualification and makes clear to them the advantages of obtaining skills and knowledge in other countries.
Contact: Sandra Jutsch, HWK Braunschweig, Burgplatz 2+2a, 38100 Braunschweig, E-mail: jutsch@hwk-bs.de ; Internet: http://www.steinmetzzentrum.de
2nd prize (€ 1,000): The Bebo Wager School/Commercial Vocational School II of the City of Augsburg for its Classe Européenne project
The Bebo Wager Vocational School offers pastry cooks, cooks and hotel specialists with journeyman certification the opportunity to take part in a one-year training programme in France to earn qualification for a complementary occupation. This project particularly targets socially disadvantaged young people between 18 and 26 years of age from underdeveloped regions, who usually have a lower secondary school leaving certificate and do not speak a foreign language. The supplementary training is provided on the basis of contracts with local enterprises where participants can learn typically French skills that are not taught in Germany but are very much in demand there. The training ends with a state-recognized examination that allows the individual to earn other higher-level French qualifications. The Classe Européenne project expands the trainees' occupational and social skills and, in the process, improves their chances on the job market. In particular, this project provides an exemplary model for organizing training products involving periods of training in other countries for which credit can be granted under the Vocational Training Act.
Contact: Stefanie Engels, Bebo-Wager-Schule/Gewerbliche Berufsschule II, Haunstetter Str. 66, 86161 Augsburg, E-mail: info@bs2-augsburg.de ; Internet: http://www.bs2-augsburg.de
3rd prize (€ 500): The Modern Occupations for Europe / Southern Thuringia e.V. training network for its Cross-border Collaborative Training project
The Modern Occupations for Europe / Southern Thuringia e.V. training network consists of 48 member enterprises where a total of 187 youths undergo in-house vocational training on the basis of training contracts. The focus of this project is on organizing supplementary training courses and supplementary qualification programmes, training instruction personnel, and planning and conducting training segments in other countries. The project presently offers training for 16 different commercial, industrial or technical occupations that require completion of formal vocational training. A Europass Mobility is issued upon successful completion of a course or programme as recognition of the training received. The Modern Occupations for Europe / Southern Thuringia e.V. training network collaborates with partners in Norway, Poland, France and Italy through an EU-level Leonardo project. All parties involved in the training process - particularly the vocational schools, chambers and training personnel - take part in preparing and conducting the training segments abroad.
Contact: Jörg Teschner, Ausbildungsverbund "Moderne Berufe für Europa/Südthüringen", Pfütschbergstr. 10, 98527 Suhl, E-mail: moderneberufe@t-online.de ; Internet: http://www.moderneberufe.de/
The Special Hermann Schmidt Prize (€ 500) was awarded to:
The company Rittal GmbH & Co. KG in Herborn for its Training Abroad programme
Rittal GmbH & Co. KG is one of the world's leading companies in the field of housing and control cabinet technology, system climate control und IT infrastructure. Consequently, experience abroad is considered to be very important and carefully designed periods of practical training abroad (for example, in the USA, Canada, England, India or China) that last up to three months are incorporated into the training Rittal trainees receive. This project targets young people in various occupational groups who have distinguished themselves through above-average performance and their willingness to assume responsibility and who are to be groomed for international business. The measures are coordinated with the respective vocational school and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The trainees catch up on the instruction they missed at vocational school later on their own. This concept can also be used at any time in enterprises with a similar structure.
Contact: Martin Kandziora, Rittal GmbH & Co. KG, Auf dem Stützelberg, 35745 Herborn, E-mail: kandziora.m@rittal.de ; Internet: http://www.rittal.de/
The BWPspezial No. 12 to Issue 5/2007 supplement to the "Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis (BWP)" journal published by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training ("BIBB") contains brief descriptions in German of the prize-winning projects and other competing projects.
This publication is available for € 7.90 from W. Bertelsmann Verlag, Fax: +49 (0) 521 / 9 11 01 19, E-mail: service@wbv.de
