Print version Recommend this page Press release
08/ 2008
Bonn, 21.02.2008
Minister of Education and Culture Rau und BIBB President Kremer award the "WIP 2008" to five winners
This year sees the eighth conferment of the "Prize for Innovation in Continuing Education and Training" (WIP), awarded by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) to recognise innovative and forward looking ideas in continuing vocational training/in-company continuing training. The "WIP 2008" (www.bibb.de/wip) carries a cash prize of €2,500 and was presented to each of the five winners by Minister of Education and Culture of the State of Baden-Württemberg Helmut Rau and President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training Manfred Kremer this Thursday as part of the programme of events at the "didacta" education fair" in Stuttgart.
Helmut Rau, State Parliament Member and Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport of the State of Baden-Württemberg: "Vocational training and continuing training have a prominent role to play in terms of securing the competitiveness of our trade and industry and retaining jobs. Qualified employees will increasingly constitute the vehicle via which competition between companies is decided. Both companies and their employees need to be prepared to pursue lifelong learning and in-service training. Initiatives such as the Prize for Innovation in Continuing Education and Training are, therefore, enormously important in this regard and assist companies and continuing training providers to address the tasks facing us in the future. I would like to express my thanks to BIBB for the degree of commitment it has displayed and for its readiness to stage this competition."
Manfred Kremer, President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training: "The competition attracted 186 entries, the second best result in the history of the WIP. This only serves to underline just how important continuing vocational training is, especially in Germany. We need to make full use of our potential and arm ourselves against the challenges of the future by developing and implementing innovative concepts. The WIP has established itself as a genuine brand label, and the prize and the innovations it funds enables BIBB to exert a significant impact on the modernisation of continuing vocational training in Germany."
The "WIP 2008" prize winners:
In-service training for older employees as customer advisors in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's)
Winner: Eichenbaum GmbH, Gotha
This prize winning concept is an innovative approach which takes the particular competences of older workers as its starting point and then expands on this by adding further skills and abilities in the form of additional competences in customer advisory services. The continuing training leads to a certified Chamber of Crafts and Trades qualification. This broadening of the activity profile enables the employability of older workers to be secured and creates the basis for a possible extension of working life. The knowledgeable and communicatively competent advisory services enable the companies, and SME's in particular, to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction and thus increase the acquisition of orders.
Contact: Mr. Uwe Jäger, Eichenbaum GmbH, Friemarer Str. 38, 99867 Gotha,
Tel.: 03621 / 510-0, E-Mail: jaeger@eichenbaum.de ; Internet: http://www.eichenbaum.de/
Specialist profile for media education - in-service training in the field of early years education using Sharepoint and a catalogue of competences
Winner: BITS 21 im fjs e.V., Berlin
Media education and the use of media during a child's upbringing have a major role to play, particularly in the area of early years learning. For this reason, competent contact partners are required in child day-care facilities and primary schools. The main focus of this in-service training is on strengthening self-learning competences and on the acquisition of substantive knowledge and methods for the integration of the new forms of media permeating our everyday lives into the structuring of educational processes. This advanced training course is realised via blended learning. The self-study modules and the exchange of specialist information take place via an online platform. A catalogue of competences is also used to support participants, enabling them to monitor their learning progress.
Contact: Ms. Ilka Goetz, BITS 21 im fjs e.V., Marchlewskistraße 27, 10243 Berlin,
Tel.: 030 / 278 62 95; E-Mail: goetz@bits21.de , Internet: http://www.bits21.de/
Training courses for disabled people in the gastronomic sector
Winner: Remstal Workshops run by the church welfare and social work organisation Diakonie Stetten e. V., Waiblingen
In the spring of 2007, the Remstal Workshops took over the lease to operate the café at Schorndorf District Hospital. The café employs outsourced workers with physical and mental disabilities who display the greatest possible proximity to the direct labour market. An innovative training concept is deployed to enable participants to learn a wide range of specialist and personal competences, thus affording people with disabilities an opportunity to participate in work and social life in a labour market oriented way and in a manner suited to the target group addressed.
Contact: Ms. Anett Wangerowski, Remstal Werkstätten, Vocational Education and Training Section (BQB), Oppenländerstraße 37, 71332 Waiblingen, Tel.: 07151 / 95 31 44 03,
E-Mail: anett.wangerowski@diakonie-stetten.de , Internet: http://www.remstal-werkstaetten.de/
Two in one - a course of study in design and company management
Winner: Aachen Chamber of Crafts and Trades (HWK) - Academy of Craft Trades Design
This three-year course of study builds on the occupational experiences of craft trade workers, providing extensive and project related continuing training. By combining craft trades design with business administration, the course of study is able to make a significant contribution to the topic of "permeability". The students pursue a double qualification, learning how to adopt an autonomous approach towards solving complex design tasks and acquiring the business administration knowledge required to run their own company successfully. This enables them to acquire customers, secure existing market opportunities and develop new market potential.
Contact: Ms. Nicole Tomys, HWK Aachen, Sandkaulbach 21, 52062 Aachen,
Tel.: 0241 / 471 115, E-Mail: nicole.tomys@hwk-aachen.de , Internet: http://www.hwk-aachen.de/
(Continuing) training representatives in autonomous migrant organisations
Winner: MOZAIK - non profit-making association for the provision of intercultural educational and advisory services, Bielefeld
This prize winning concept adopts an innovative approach towards combining the disseminating function assumed by (continuing) training representatives in autonomous migrant organisations with the part such persons play as role models for the integration of this important target group. The association has itself developed four modules to provide training for the (continuing) training representatives, who work on a voluntary basis. This specific activity and the intermediary role played by such representatives enables participation in continuing training by migrants aged over 25 who are seeking employment or are threatened by unemployment to be increased. The concept also plays a vital role in strengthening the self-help potential of autonomous migrant organisations, something which is urgently required.
Contact: Mr. Cemalettin Özer, MOZAIK gGmbH, Herforder Straße 46, 33602 Bielefeld,
Tel.: 0521 / 96 68 2-0, E-Mail: info@mozaik.de , Internet: http://www.mozaik.de/
