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43/ 2011
Bonn, 20.09.2011
Prizes awarded to four projects providing outstanding models for the securing of future skilled workers
Hermann Schmidt Prize 2011
The competition for the "Hermann Schmidt Prize" has been staged for the 15th time under the motto of "Models for securing young skilled workers via the vehicle of vocational education and training". In adopting this theme, the "Innovative Vocational Education and Training Association" was seeking to adopt a targeted approach towards identifying and rewarding initiatives which have already developed and demonstrably implemented models of this nature. In certain regions and branches, many companies are already clearly feeling the force of demographic change and are developing a multitude of innovative initiatives and activities aimed at exploiting every possible area of potential in order to attract young people to dual vocational education and training and produce effective skilled workers. The aim of the Association, which is funded by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Bonn and the Bielefeld-based publishing house W. Bertelsmann Verlag (wbv), is to use the annual prize it awards for innovative approaches in VET practice as a vehicle for drawing attention to and promoting such projects and in order to encourage others to emulate them. The Association is named after former BIBB President Professor Hermann Schmidt, who led the institute from 1977 to 1997. The prize ceremony took place in Berlin on 19 September as part of the 6th BIBB Vocational Education and Training Congress "Developing competences - opening up opportunities".
The winning entries from the 35 initiatives submitted for the competition were as follows.
Winner of the Hermann Schmidt Prize 2011 (€3,000): "2011 vocational orientation concept as a model for the future", Weidmüller Interface GmbH & Co. KG, Detmold
This year's winner of the Hermann Schmidt Prize winner is a company initiated and financed vocational orientation concept operated in conjunction with local lower, intermediate and upper secondary schools, comprehensive schools and educational services providers. The company's aim is to obtain up-and-coming skilled workers by attracting young people to technical occupations. The concept itself has been designed in a staged, age-appropriate, systematic and sustainable manner and extends for a period of two and a half years. The jury emphasised the innovative and transferable nature of the project and particularly praised the approach adopted, which encompasses all forms of school and brings together pupils of different abilities and potential and from various social origins.
Contact: Wolfgang Gwiasda, Weidmüller Interface, Ohmstr. 9, 32758 Detmold, Tel.: 05231 / 14-1332, Internet: www.weidmueller-akademie.de
Special prize (€1,000): "Training for practical trainers", AOK Statutory Health Insurance Company Rhineland/Hamburg - Düsseldorf
The aim of this project is to professionalise the training of "skilled workers providing training" in a sustainable manner in order to better prepare them to give individual assistance to young people entering training with varying degrees of prior learning and support such trainees along the route of successfully achieving a vocational qualification. The newly developed curriculum comprises 48 hours of teaching and culminates in an examination, the results of which can be credited towards completing the requirements of the Ordinance on Trainer Aptitude (AEVO). This secures connectivity of the measure with the federal vocational education qualifications system. The jury recognised the way in which the project focuses on the important group of "skilled workers providing training" and praised the emphasis on exploiting potential and on transfer within the curriculum.
Contact: Petra Pigerl-Radtke, AOK Rheinland/Hamburg, Schwarzer Weg 5 - 7, 41515 Grevenbroich, Tel.: 02181 / 693-123, Internet: www.aok.de/rh
Special prize (€1,000): "Supporting young people in the training occupation of electrical fitter - with a particular focus of attention on lower secondary school leavers", SMA Solar Technology AG, Niestetal
Since 2007, the company SMA Solar Technology AG has been cooperating with local schools to provide 15 to 18 training places per year in the training occupation of electrical fitter in a targeted attempt to support young people with poorer lower secondary school leaving qualifications. Six of these places are allocated by three local comprehensive schools acting autonomously. In order to secure success, the company has established a wide range of training support measures and engaged a social education worker. The first group, which consisted of nine young people, has now successfully completed training. All trainees entered permanent employment with the company. The jury praised the company for providing funding and judged the project to be an exemplary initiative instigated on a sustainable basis which offered particular support to disadvantaged or less able lower secondary school leavers.
Contact: Martina Fischmann, SMA Solar Technology AG, Sonnenallee 1, 34266 Niestetal, Tel.: 0561 / 9522-2651, Internet: www.sma.de
Special prize (€1,000): "Business initiative for better training in the green sector", Initiative for Training, Nürtingen
This prize winning project is a business initiative currently involving 52 companies nationwide aimed at improving quality assurance and development in the "green sector". The companies use a binding catalogue of criteria encompassing twelve points and the awarding of a "quality mark" to increase the quality of training and to secure their own supply of young skilled workers by assisting lower ability young people in particular with the successful completion of a vocational qualification. The jury gave particular praise to the comprehensive approach adopted, which involves a broad range of supporting measures to cover everything from the training of the young people themselves to the funding of advanced training for training staff.
Contact: Albrecht Bühler, Initiative für Ausbildung, Hindenburgstr. 67, 72622 Detmold, Tel.: 0711 / 3650500, Internet: www.bühler-teamwork .
Brief presentations of the prize winning projects and of further projects submitted to the competition are included in a brochure available for download at www.bibb.de/hermann-schmidt-preis .
Pictures of the prize giving are available at www.bibb.de/pressefotos .
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