Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

Tapping existing reservoirs

Although this year has seen some easing on the training place market, the quantitative problems are far from being solved. In all probability, creating a sufficient number of training places and reducing the number of 'carry-over applicants' will be the focus of attention for quite a while to come. At the same time, reports on shortages of skilled workers are already signalling the fundamental change that will face us in the future. However, it would appear to be premature to bewail a serious shortage of skilled workers at this time - at least in terms of skilled workers who received their training through the dual vocational training system.

• This is because the number of carry-over applicants who were unable to find a training place is somewhere in the order of 300,000 young people. That is approximately 40 per cent of all training place applicants in 2006. 
• The share of an age cohort that does not complete any type of formal vocational training remains unchanged at around 15 per cent. 
• Those individuals who never earned formal vocational qualification and are working as unskilled labour or are unemployed also constitute an untapped reservoir. 
• We also have to remember that only about one out of every two individuals who pass their final examination is subsequently hired by the enterprise that trained them. For many, the end of training marks the start of a period of unemployment.

Looking at only the quantitative side, we have an enormous reservoir of training place applicants and individuals who have completed their vocational training, a reservoir that will last for several years. However, difficulties due to growing shortages will particularly develop in those areas that have not made provisions for their future manpower requirements by providing in-house vocational training. This can also be expected in those occupations and sectors that are less attractive or less familiar to young people - be it due to the requirements, working conditions or simply because the particular occupation is not 'in' with the younger generation.

Enterprises will have to get used to the fact that number of applicants is on the decline and that fewer young people are seeking a training place. As a consequence, companies and their associations will have to conduct considerably more active marketing than in the past if they are to tap this reservoir of potential applicants for the occupations they need for their operations. The coming years will see competition develop between training schemes, between sectors and between enterprises over school-leavers and particularly over the good ones. In this connection, the quality of the vocational training being provided is likely to be an important factor when competing over young qualified workers.

This will be all the more the case in light of the fact that applicant structures will continue to change in parallel to this: Qualified applicants - particularly those who have earned qualification to study at a university or university of applied sciences - will possibly find university studies more attractive than vocational training as a result of the favourable predictions being issued regarding the future demand for university graduates and due to the increase in the number of openings available in bachelor's and master's degree programmes. In future, enterprises wanting to recruit skilled workers will have to draw much more than ever from the reservoir of those youths who have not received formal vocational training owing to their lack of the fundamental knowledge and attitudes necessary for successful training or for some other reason and have instead landed in the so-called 'transition system'. This group consists primarily of lower secondary school leavers, school leavers with poorer marks, immigrants and youths with an immigration background.

However, special assistance measures will be needed if this reservoir is to be tapped. And these measures must be taken at the earliest possible stage, in other words, while the individual is still in school. Collaboration between general schools and vocational schools and integrating practical phases at enterprises and inter-company vocational training centres into instruction could improve career-orientedness and make it even clearer why learning is a good thing. 'Transition management' is the technocratic term for this. But this concerns even more, namely: Making practical experience a part of the educational mission of secondary schooling.

Assistance during formal vocational training is also necessary. Assistance that is provided during vocational training and support that is provided by educators outside the classroom have proven their worth. Measures of this type should be increased and conducted on an ongoing basis. Enterprises need the help of external service providers for this. Players in the respective region play an important role in developing and maintaining this kind of support structure, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Quantity and quality

The discussions held during this conference have shown that the amount and quality of the vocational training on offer have to be viewed in context with one another. Demand for quality management instruments is growing - as tools for ensuring quality not only in public schools but also in enterprises. This demand is being driven by internal customers in the individual enterprise and the company's own skilled labour requirements. When companies have to compete over young skilled labour, quality will also be an important trump card that will help them ensure that their own future manpower requirements are met.

Although regulations are important, the relationship between instructor and trainee is surely considerably more important for ensuring quality on location, in enterprises and in schools. Qualified instruction personnel is indispensable to this. The decision whether to overhaul the Ordinance on Trainer Aptitude is on the agenda - as is revising the initial teacher training system. Work is currently underway on developing advanced training regulations for the occupation 'vocational educator'. The aim here must always be to prepare and professionalize instruction personnel for changes in their tasks and roles - for instance, as coaches in the work process, as experts in dealing with 'disadvantaged individuals', as educators and organizers of learning processes.

In this connection, collaboration between learning venues has also always been and will continue to be on the agenda. Digital media have opened the door to new models. The virtualization of learning is under discussion. For example, it is conceivable that trainees log into learning modules from home or their training place at the enterprise providing their training and earn supplementary qualifications online. This also offers a better means to solve problems with the provision of schooling. Virtualization offers new, innovative solutions to problems arising in connection with the decline in the size of age cohorts, long commutes and even schooling for splinter occupations. We want to make use of these opportunities and test them with the help of models.

Permeability and lifelong learning

Vocational training cannot and should not however be a field only for lesser qualified individuals. In addition to tapping the reservoir of those individuals who have not received formal vocational training, our goal must be to keep vocational education and training attractive for particularly gifted individuals, for school-leavers who have completed higher levels of secondary education. Consequently, Germany's dual vocational training system must maintain and if possible improve its position when competing for highly-qualified trainees. Experience gathered with courses of study that integrate phases of vocational training ('dual' study courses) show that the prospects are good for such programmes. Today, we have 670 different models that combine initial and continuing vocational training courses with university programmes, usually at universities of applied sciences. The switch to bachelor's and master's degrees is opening up further opportunities.

In addition to these models, permeability between different qualification pathways and different levels of education is also a general item on the agenda. Vocational education and training should set a good example and dismantle barriers in its own ambit. This means permeability between 'dual' vocational training (which combines part-time vocational schooling with practical work experience) and full-time vocational schooling - and between occupations that require two years of training and those that require three years, as well as between initial and continuing vocational training. The greater our success in this undertaking the more convincing we can be when calling for greater permeability between vocational training and tertiary education. A qualifications framework and a credit transfer system for vocational education and training that is compatible with the ECTS for universities could bring crucial progress in this area.

We have known for some time now that in light of the rapid and hard-to-predict developments in the working world, workers in the future will have to learn much, much more during the course of their working lives - through formal continuing education and through informal lifelong learning. The updating training that dominates the continuing vocational training field will not suffice for this. What we need are longer training phases that end with recognized certification or can be used to earn intermediate qualifications. This would be particularly important for those individuals who work as unskilled labourers or who have not earned any formal vocational qualification. In order to improve these individuals' employability over the long term, new avenues for them to earn qualification must be created and then put to greater use. Enterprises - as well as works' councils and trade unions - are particularly called upon to do their part here. The problems arising in connection with financing and with giving employees time off to undergo training are far from being solved. Convincing solutions for the organizational and didactic implementation of such measures still have to be developed as well. Developing models that take into account the respective target group's learning and work experience will be crucial to success in this connection.

Differentiation and flexibilization

Although it is often said that the Berufsprinzip - the principle of tailoring vocational training to specific, recognized skilled occupations - is being eroded, there is little persuasive evidence for this. Irrespective of the increase in precarious employment and short-term-job careers, formally defined occupations continue to be an important way to structure work and the job market. And, for the individual, one's occupation is also an important point of reference for one's identity. Moreover, the principle of organizing education and training according to occupation provides the basis for laying claim to the equivalence of general education and vocational education and training and for the call for permeability between educational pathways. However, the Berufsprinzip is anything but a rigid regulative. Instead, it is a flexible norm that requires interpretation and can be shaped. A balance must be found time and again in the relationship between standardization and flexibilization, between specialization and generalization. Standardized solutions will not work here. Instead, a variety of solutions must be found that will meet the different conditions in the individual occupations and sectors.

Most of not only Germany's existing 'training occupations' (the term used for occupations that require completion of formal vocational training) and recently created training occupations are 'mono-occupations'. In other words, they are training occupations that are not broken up into occupational subgroups with specialization by sector or focal area. At the same time however, they also exhibit a number of commonalities and overlaps among themselves. For this reason, taking common elements, transitions and opportunities for transferring credits is the obvious thing to do. This is to be taken into greater account when existing occupational profiles and regulations are revised and updated. This approach also provides young skilled workers greater flexibility and broadens the areas in which they can work. At the same time, this would create - or rather necessitate - more options for greater flexibility in enterprises. Not only the approaches to reform being offered by industrial and trade associations but also the recommendations submitted by the Innovationskreis Berufliche Bildung panel for innovation in vocational education and training point in this direction. Future work on revising and updating training regulations will have the task of examining whether this approach can be used and then the task of implementing it. The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training will actively accompany this process and support it through research which will examine concurrences and provide suggestions for merging occupations and for flexible transitions.

Many training occupations already offer options that allow greater flexibility. They have specialization profiles, specialized fields, compulsory elements and elective elements. This enables them to allow for differences between sectors and enterprises. Nevertheless there is still a need for action because we continue to have a large number of mono-occupations that offer few options for differentiation in the form of specialization or 'sub-occupations', and are subject to strict parameters and comprehensive, detailed regulations.    

There appears to be a consensus that training regulations should be limited to outlining minimum standards. In contrast, the question of what minimum standards should include is a point of contention. At any rate, there should be greater latitude for company-specific or regional solutions. Training regulations that limit themselves to outlining the skills to be learned and leave the decision on how this objective is to be reached largely up to the individual enterprise providing the vocational training offer one option for this. The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training will work in this direction and test this avenue. It is also true however that shifting vocational training entirely to the individual enterprises would not be in the interest of trade and industry nor would it be in the interest of the individual workers. Uniform standards are quite simply the prerequisite for the nationwide recognition of certificates, for transparent qualifications and also for permeability with other educational paths. As desirable as flexibilization may be at first glance and in the interests of the individual enterprises, it clearly has its limits.

The recently amended Vocational Training Act offers unused opportunities for flexibilization. One avenue that it opens up is the option to regulate additional subjects during the updating and revision of existing training regulations. This option covers subjects that would be taught only in certain enterprises or only for a segment of trainees. It would also be possible to conduct examinations for these subjects. This option should be put to more aggressive use in the future.

The system's flexibility

As I see it, the 5th BIBB Congress has once again shown that the vocational training system is facing major challenges. Some critics - particularly those in the research field - do not believe that our system of vocational training is able to meet these challenges. It is said that Germany's dual vocational training is not (or no longer) able to cope with the demands of the employment system, that it is ponderous and inflexible, does not interface with training in other countries and hinders lifelong learning by being 'front-heavy'. These voices are enough to make one lose heart.

It is my opinion however that Germany's dual vocational training system has proven time and again that it is flexible and able to adjust to changing conditions and demands. It is much more adaptable than many a critic is willing to admit. In my judgment, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Germany's vocational training system has the character of a 'learning system'. Generally speaking, learning systems exhibit the following characteristics:

• Learning systems are systems that are able to adapt to new, yet unknown challenges and actively deal with the world around them. 
• Learning systems are systems in which learning is integrated into working and decision-making processes and in which learning by doing plays a major role. 
• Learning systems are systems in which it is possible try new things and in which there are firm principles and convictions but no dogmas.
• Learning systems are systems in which learning ensues particularly in the course of social contact and through the communicative exchange of information, opinions and experience.

The dual vocational training system exhibits these characteristics to a high degree. In addition, a look at the past shows how far we have come and how the dual vocational training system has progressively developed - in some ways continually, in other ways in leaps. In the process it has proven itself to be extremely flexible and innovative. Proof for this includes the number of new occupations that have been created and the number of existing occupations that have been updated in recent years. Due in no small part to these activities it has been possible to anchor firmly the dual vocational training system in the service sector. Today, most trainees undergo training for an occupation in the service sector.

Some people may feel that the speed and intensity of the reforms being pursued in the vocational training sector still need to be kicked up a few notches. But it would not be of much help to push through reforms without taking the players involved into consideration. This would not ensure the acceptance that is needed in order for a reform to succeed. Although with this consensus-based approach it can take somewhat longer until a solution can be found and implemented, the participation of the players involved guarantees that new ideas are also accepted and implemented in day-to-day practice.

Moreover, vocational education and training is far from being a standardized system. Quite the contrary: Vocational education and training is marked by a wide variety of approaches, organizational forms and participating partners. Because of this, some people are inclined to dispute that the dual vocational training system is actually a system. But precisely this is its strength, an expression of its adaptation to different conditions, and a sign for its flexibility and vitality. Which is why I am confident that we will succeed in finding practicable and effective solutions for the problems currently facing us and the problems that lie ahead.

Farewell and thanks

The young people who are in the process of undergoing vocational training must take centre stage in vocational training. Our discussions, concepts and instruments must be devoted to them and their occupational and personal development. Our concepts must reflect these young people and their occupational realities.

We started the day today with young people and the presentation the winners of our photo competition at a special award ceremony. And now at the close of our conference, the students from the Elly Heuss Knapp Vocational School in Düsseldorf would like to present a style show with the results of their work. And in keeping with the theme of today's round of discussions, the motto here is Fashion for Europe.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped organize and conduct this conference. Thank you for your creative ideas, your dedication, your active support and your interest in our common cause.

I thank

• all of you for coming and for your contributions to our discussions, 
• the speakers and panellists for their expert input, 
• the moderators and reporters for writing the scripts and directing this event,
• the students and trainees who helped round out the day today with their photos and fashion show,
• and, most importantly, the BIBB team that organized this conference and the colleagues who developed the concepts for the forums and working groups, organized the meetings of the forums and workings groups and were actively involved in carrying them out.

Anyone who has ever done something similar knows how much detailed work this requires, how many things happen behind the scenes and have to happen behind the scenes in order for an event of this size to go off without a hitch.

In conclusion, I can only say, please enjoy yourself with Fashion for Europe and.... curtains up!

Düsseldorf, 14 September 2007

Erscheinungsdatum und Hinweis Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

Publication on the Internet: October 10, 2007

URN: urn:nbn:de:0035-0216-9

Deutsche Nationalbibliothek has archived the electronic publication "Vocational training as a learning system", which is now permanently available on the archive server of Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

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Last modified on: November 29, 2011