"edvance markets German vocational education and training internationally "
Monika Muylkens
The vocational training market has been one of the fastest-growing markets worldwide for years now. Aiming to strengthen German vocational training's position in this market, the German government launched the edvance initiative and introduced it to the public in 2008. The initiative is being overseen and coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The tasks involved in the work of the edvance initiative are being discharged by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Research (BIBB), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), International Marketing of Vocational Education (iMOVE) and Inwent - Capacity Building International, Germany. A coordination office has been set up at BIBB and has been assisting the initiative since the start of the year.
The idea behind edvance is to help participating organisations be more effective in marketing themselves to the international vocational training scene by using a joint brand. edvance will act as a promoter of German vocational training and become a kind of seal of quality that is used abroad as a symbol for the quality of German vocational training. In this connection, the edvance initiative will bring together strong partners with experience in vocational training collaboration and make use of their synergies. The range of edvance activities and services is broad and includes the development, refining and modernisation of national vocational training systems, labour market research, vocational training research, technology expertise for small and medium-sized enterprises, training aimed at employment that ensures the individual's livelihood, the development of curricula and occupational profiles, didactics, the development of instruction materials and education technologies, vocational training management, the internationalisation of personnel development, and the creation of networks and international learning communities.
