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12/ 2011
Bonn, 16.03.2011
BIBB Board adopts resolutions on the German Qualifications Framework (GQF) and the European Taxonomy of Skills, Competences and Occupations (ESCO)
The Board of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) adopted further resolutions regarding the German Qualifications Framework (GQF) and the European Commission's initiative concerning the European Taxonomy of Skills, Competences and Occupations (ESCO) at its recent meeting in Bonn.
In its recommendation regarding the further development of the GQF, the Board emphasised that the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and the GQF which builds on the EQF will gain wide acceptance only when the work to be done in the GQF Working Group in the future is continued in consensus with relevant representatives of the education sectors and when the results of their work are acknowledged in political decisions. According to the Board, it will be possible to foster transparency, lateral mobility and equivalence in the German education system only when enterprises, employees, instructors and learners as well as the players in the education policy field - as potential users of the GQF - accept the GQF and recognise its benefits. As the Board pointed out in its recommendation, the GQF's benefits will develop fully only when qualifications in the various education sectors are referenced on the basis of uniform principles, criteria and methods.
The BIBB Board once again stressed that the GQF must be designed to span all education sectors and that it must be possible to reach the individual levels via a variety of education pathways. As the Board noted, it is important to make the equivalence of the respective occupational competences clear. The Board particularly called for ensuring that the upper secondary school leaving certificate that entitles holders to admission to any institution of higher education including university is not referenced to a higher level than 3-year and 3.5-year training programmes for occupations offered in the dual vocational training system [which combines part-time vocational schooling with practical work experience] and that vocational education and training in Germany should not be ranked too low.
Based on the initiative New Skills for New Jobs (www.bibb.de/goto/newskills ), the European Commission wants to establish a "common language between the labour market and education/training" with the European Taxonomy of Skills, Competences and Occupa¬tions (ESCO). In the process, the national classification systems for occupations, qualifications, skills and competences are to be progressively developed and linked with one another.
In its statement on ESCO, the BIBB Board fundamentally welcomed the attempt to better link national education systems and placement processes on the European labour market with one another. However, with regard to the actual design of ESCO, the Board expressly underscored the need to balance education policy interests with employment policy interests. As the Board noted, ESCO should not be tackled in haste or at short notice.
The BIBB Board pointed to the fact that it is not yet known what the consequences will be for the German vocational education and training system should competences and qualifications be 0 as planned with ESCO 0 minutely differentiated and, as a result, also offered and taught in education programmes and individual measures. The BIBB Board holds that replacing the modern occupation-based approach to vocational training with a pan-European understanding of "detail qualifications" would, from an education policy standpoint, be charting the wrong course. For this reason, the BIBB Board calls upon the German government to take an active part in ESCO and to ensure close coordination at national and international level through its participating ministries.
Under German law, the BIBB Board has the task of advising the German government on fundamental issues involving vocational education and training. Representation on the Board is equally divided between labour, management, Germany's federal states and the federal government.
The text of the resolutions adopted by the BIBB Board regarding the GQF and ESCO:
