Full-time vocational schools
Long-term observation of full-time vocational schools
Below university level in the German vocational training system, full-time vocational schools that lead to full vocational qualification constitute an alternative to the dual vocational training system (which combines part-time vocational schooling with practical work experience), schools in the health care sector and civil service training. Full-time vocational schools are part of the school system and therefore fall under the purview of Germany's federal states.
Using data from the Federal Statistical Office, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training analyzes trends in the number of students attending full-time vocational schools. Its findings are published every year in the German government's Report on Vocational Education and Training.
The number of students at full-time vocational schools offering vocational qualification that is not covered by the Vocational Training Act - in other words, qualification for 'school occupations' pursuant to state law - has grown steadily since 1988, increasing nearly 3.5-fold, from less than 70,000 in 1988 to some 238,000 as of the 2005/06 academic year. Since there are often not enough training places for occupations that require completion of formal vocational training pursuant to the Vocational Training Act or the Crafts and Trade Code, trends in full-time school-based training programmes - which are considered supplements to the dual vocational training system - are monitored and analyzed on an on-going basis. This work includes examining whether the success of full-time vocational schools goes beyond their growth rates and when yes, what this success consists of, whether and which synergy effects are evident in a comparison of the different types of vocational training and whether these synergies can be put to use.
This area of research is not straightforward because the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the States has produced only a handful of framework agreements concerning occupations and, in contrast to the dual vocational training system, there is no nation-wide system of designations for training occupations learned in full-time vocational schools. Instead, Germany's 16 federal states each develop their own training programmes. Consequently, different states can use the same occupational designation for different training programmes with different curricula and durations, and the designations of comparable training programmes can vary from state to state.
This project is a long-term project with changing areas of focus.
