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44/ 2011
Bonn, 20.09.2011
Conclusion of the 6th BIBB Vocational Education and Training Congress in Berlin
BIBB President Hubert Esser: "BIBB to strengthen the active role it plays across major fields of VET activity"
Friedrich Hubert Esser, President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) believes that the four major areas of activity in vocational education and training over the next ten years will be the introduction and implementation of the German Qualifications Framework, the further development of dual VET, the exploitation of all areas of educational and training potential and increasing the level of participation in continuing training. Delivering his concluding address at the 6th BIBB Vocational Education and Training Congress in Berlin on Tuesday, Professor Esser said: "BIBB will be making a stronger contribution within these areas in future and will be using the results of its research and other work as a vehicle for providing even more extensive consultancy services and support to VET policy and practice." He praised the BIBB Congress as a "milestone" which had struck a positive chord and generated important impetuses for the further development of vocational education and training and stated that the presence at the event of German President Christian Wulff and Federal Minister of Education Annette Schavan was an impressive testimony to the value attached to VET in Germany. The BIBB President went on to say that implementation of the German Qualifications Framework could only succeed if alignment of qualifications to the various levels across the different areas of the educational system took place in accordance with uniform criteria and within harmonised procedures. Esser spoke out strongly in support of localising the upper secondary school leaving certificate and three-year or three and a half year vocational qualifications at the same reference level. "This is an area where all stakeholders would be well advised not to begin questioning what has been achieved shortly before we enter the finishing straight." He declared that the "moment of truth" had now arrived when statements regarding the equivalence of academic education and vocational education and training would need to be translated into concrete action.
In terms of the further development of the dual system of training, the route in future would need to facilitate greater flexibility, accord due consideration to increasing internationalisation and be more closely aligned to people's competences. Professor Esser also felt that such an approach would be required in order to do justice to the wide diversity of training occupations and the changing aspirations of learners. "All occupational fields will need to be described in a competence oriented manner in future, and concepts will have to be aligned in a manner which is precisely tailored to the specific requirements of the respective branch." The BIBB President emphasised that the creation of "occupational families" would be indispensable in order to be sure of achieving this.
It was also necessary to strengthen and foster everyone's gifts and talents for the purpose of securing the supply of young skilled workers and retaining the competitiveness of German trade and industry. "These are the foundations of Germany's future." Educational policy would need to be aligned in a more holistic way in future and pursue a policy of "prevention rather than repair". Care would also need to be taken to improve young people's apprenticeship entry maturity, provide individual support to less able young people, achieve better integration for young people from a migrant background and attract more able young people to vocational education and training. "This will give young people clear options for the planning and structuring of their future lives as well as providing companies with the leeway they need in order to be able to act against the background of demographic developments", said Esser.
In order to increase the rate of participation in continuing training in Germany, a quota which tended to be "moderate" in European comparative terms, closer interlinking of initial and continuing training would be required in future for the purpose of avoiding gaps in learning. "In future, each training qualification must also provide entry to continuing vocational training." The BIBB President called for an expansion of available opportunities for the credit transfer of competences acquired via vocational education and training to a course of higher education study and for improved support in this regard for those in possession of vocational qualifications via the development of appropriate concepts to foster the ability to enter higher education. In the light of demographic developments, it would also ultimately be necessary to support continuing training for older people in particular.
The main thematic focus of the 6th BIBB Vocational Education and Training Congress was "Developing competences - opening up opportunities". The event was held in Berlin on 19 and 20 September and attracted around 1,200 VET experts who debated current VET issues and perspectives from both a national and international angle in five forums and 21 working groups.
English language documentation of the results of the congress will be published shortly on the BIBB website at http://www.bibb.de/en/55238.htm .
Picture material is available at www.bibb.de/pressefotos .
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