Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

Measuring vocational skills and competences

The articles that are the special focus of this issue of BWP outline important models and methods for measuring vocational skills and competences in vocational education and training and examine them in light of the particular context in which they developed and with an eye to their objectives. With this special focus, the latest issue of BWP aims to inject greater transparency into what is a complex field and to point out interfaces with various fields of application. In his editorial, BIBB's President Manfred Kremer stresses that taking skill- and competence-orientedness seriously as a guiding concept in vocational education and training requires the development of reliable instruments for measuring skills and competences. He points to the proposal developed by recognised experts regarding a research programme that revolves around "competence diagnostics in vocational education and training". The text of this proposal is enclosed as a supplement to this issue of BWP. In the BWP interview, the new parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Dr Helge Braun, explains the education policy goals that the current government laid down for the next four years in its coalition agreement. The new column "Vocational training in numbers" uses current VET statistics to show that the majority of new vocational training contracts are signed for just a handful of occupations and that girls and young women focus on an even narrower spectrum than their male counterparts do.