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33/ 2011
Bonn, 08.07.2011
Vocational training for disabled persons: Recommendations issued by BIBB Board set new standards
When youths are unable to undergo formal vocational training provided pursuant to the training regulations currently in force for a particular occupation due to a severe disability, vocational training can be adapted to meet the special needs of disabled trainees. Over the years, the competent bodies in Germany - usually the chambers of industry and commerce, chambers of crafts and trades or chambers of agriculture 0 have approved nearly 1,000 'training arrangements', some of which have different designations for the final qualification or different training content than foreseen by regular training regulations. As expedient as each training arrangement may be for integrating disabled youths into society, comparability and transparency are lost in the face of such a large number of individual arrangements. Seeking to reduce this 'proliferation', the Board of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) has adopted the first occupation-specific model training arrangements for the occupational fields Sales, Domestic Science, Metal-Working, Office and Wood. The recommendations issued by the BIBB Board 0 which is also called the 'parliament of vocational education and training' - outline national standards, giving the competent bodies important orientation for the training arrangements they issue.
These model arrangements were developed under the direction of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training by expert advisory boards comprised of experts from the social partners, the federal government and state governments and experts and practitioners from facilities which provide vocational training for disabled persons. This work was based on a recommendation issued by the BIBB Board in December 2009. This recommendation constituted the first time that a "framework arrangement for the provision of vocational training for disabled persons" was adopted in connection with Section 66 of the Vocational Training Act / Section 42m of the Crafts Code.
This framework arrangement provides for the following on a uniform, national basis in the area of training arrangements: individualised education plans, additional qualification in the area of rehabilitation pedagogics for trainers, requirements for in-company training content, vocational competence as the objective of the vocational training programme, uniform, non-discriminatory occupational designations and compatibility which allows the individual to progress to a formal vocational training programme in a recognised occupation that requires completion of formal vocational training.
The occupation-specific model arrangements which the BIBB Board recently approved give the framework arrangement a concrete form for the five above-mentioned fields. Model arrangements are already being developed for the occupational fields Horticulture, Cooking and Machining. Others are to follow.
"The adoption of the framework arrangement and the model arrangements constitute a major step toward putting measures for social integration into action for those people for whom a 'normal' recognised occupation that requires completion of formal vocational training is not an option due to the nature and severity of their particular disability," explained BIBB's president Professor Dr Friedrich Hubert Esser. "Since they are geared to specific reference occupations and therefore to quality, compatibility and permeability, the framework arrangement and the model arrangements are also in conformance with the inclusion approach and thereby the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities."
The Board's recommendations and the framework training plans are available in German on the BIBB website at www.bibb.de/de/32327.htm.
Further information can also be found in Issue 2/2011 of the BIBB journal Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis 0 BWP (Vocational Training in Research and Practice) at www.bibb.de/en/32155.htm.
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