Internationalisation of vocational education and training
Strategies - concepts - experience - proposals for action
The globalisation of the economy makes the internationalisation of vocational training indispensable. This is all the more the case given the fact that services, products and sub-components are increasingly being sold at the global level and have to also be supplied as a service accordingly. How well is vocational training in Germany prepared for these changing qualification requirements?
Modernisation and the capability to undergo reform in the area of vocational learning in Germany must be seen in the context of European and international trends in labour and education. Generally speaking, one of the most important consequences of the internationalisation of business is manifested in its altered relationship to the training and employment system. Given the internationalisation of business, these are more than ever caught up in a relationship characterised by dynamic interdependence. The skills gap between the qualification needs of business and the qualifications available in the labour market is being widened by technological and demographic developments and the transition into the information and knowledge-based society is being accelerated by continuing globalisation. The shortage of international qualifications can turn out to be a disadvantage in global competition.
Globalisation as a national political strategy is increasingly gaining importance especially in the countries and "knowledge-based societies" of the European Union. Thus strategies and measures aimed at opening the German system of vocational training and their international compatibility are moving to the forefront of attention in the field of vocational training research.
Other training sub-systems are also caught up in a process of change which is primarily influenced by international agreements and standards. Thus the globalisation of the university sector - supported by the EU's Bologna process in its structures (for instance: the credit point system, bachelor and masters' degrees, etc.) and in its training content and training objectives (special studies facilities, consideration of international know-how in the usual studies programmes, etc.).
Other countries in Europe explicitly take into account the international argument for reform of their vocational training systems. The comparative analysis of initial and continuing vocational training shows, for example with respect to the Netherlands, that the "international argument" is playing a pivotal role in the restructuring of vocational training there. Thus business administration trainees in the Netherlands can learn a third language in addition to the mandatory second language. On top of this, young adults at every training site can graduate from a learning field (encompassing about 150 hours of training) which is explicitly prepared with the intent of meeting specific vocational requirements at the international level. This is also associated with a willingness and ability to work and live in other countries. All the education and training measures in Denmark are to be "internationalised" by 2002. The social partners there all agree on the need for this move.
These examples merely trace some rudimentary thoughts. The authors of the study assume that the structures and forms of vocational training in Germany, primarily those set out in the Vocational Training Act, have thus far not been adequately and systematically able to confront changed framework conditions and claims. Against this background, the acquisition of international skills for graduates of public vocational training are to be made structurally possible. Internationally oriented skills, which can lead to practical international vocational skills within the framework of vocational training activities, are acquired on the basis of select technical and multi-vocational learning areas as well as the aid of curriculum-based vocational training programmes which integrate the international aspect and the learning site abroad in initial and continuing vocational training in a systematic manner.
The authors are thus of the opinion that the forms and content of vocational training of young adults needs to be moved to the forefront within the framework of strategies aimed at internationalising German vocation training - including with respect to the positioning and competitiveness of the dual system of vocational training in Europe.
