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24/ 2007
Bonn, 23.05.2007
Vocational education and training: Fit for the future or fit for the trash bin?
Joint Symposium of the BIBB, the Sociologists' Association and the University of Dortmund
Acid tests lie ahead for the system of vocational education and training in Germany. An insufficient number of training places and the expansion of stop-gap measures for young people who fail to negotiate the transition to vocational education and training are just two of the burning issues. But he demands on each individual are growing as well. Changing job descriptions in a modern knowledge and service society require higher qualifications and skills of the employees. There is growing competition between vocational education and training and university education: Skilled workers trained under the dual system have to compete for jobs and positions with university graduates, especially those with bachelor's degrees, specifically in the knowledge-based occupations.
What radical changes result from this for the vocational education and training systems, what consequences can be expected from a greater focus on learning outcomes in vocational education and training as required by the European Qualifications Framework, how the transfer from one educational path and one educational institution to another can be facilitated and what consequences that will have for the individual and the society are the key questions up for debate at the 14th Conference for Applied Sociology, "Vocational Education and Training Between Social Integration and Selection - Fields of Research and Work in Sociology". The Symposium will take place at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Bonn on 14/15 June 2007. It is being organised by the Professional Association of German Sociologists (Berufsverband Deutscher Soziologinnen und Soziologen e.V. - BDS) in cooperation with the BIBB and the Dortmund Social Research Office (Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund - sfs).
For Manfred Kremer, President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, ease of access to university from vocational education and training pathways is one of the prime objectives. "Precisely against that background of further differentiation of activities and positions in promising fields of employment, it is necessary to further expand the corresponding pathways of development and advancement in vocational education and training. That is the only way skilled workers trained under the dual system have a chance of further training for intermediate and higher positions. And it is the only way an important factor in the success of the dual system can be preserved for the future."
In the view of the BDS chairperson, Dr. Erich Behrendt, sociology faces a special challenge in this process: "The sociologists organised in the BDS make a decisive contribution to vocational education and training in Germany as trainers, as educational counsellors, in public administration and in human resources development. Sociology not only has the social task of monitoring and helping to shape the challenges of the day through research, it also has to realign its teaching under the changed prerequisites."
Registration documents and further information on the symposium and conditions of attendance at www.bibb.de/de/27208.htm or www.bds-soz.de
The conference fee (graduated between 40 and 90 euros) also covers the BDS manual "Was werden mit Soziologie - Berufe für Soziologen/-innen", newly published in conjunction with the event.
Press contact:
Alfred Fuhr M.A
BDS-Pressesprecher
Agentur für Praxissoziologie
Lyoner Str. 16
60528 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: 069 / 66 06 216
E-Mail: alfred.fuhr@avd.de
Symposium organisation:
Ute Schorn
BDS-Bundesgeschäftsstelle
Ostcharweg 123
45665 Recklinghausen
Tel.: 02361 / 49 20 25
Fax: 02361 / 49 25 46
E-Mail: geschaeftsstelle@bds-soz.de
