Examination economy over examination quality?

Over the years, the legal bases for determining the objectives of initial vocational training in Germany have been under continuous development. One outcome, for instance, is the new instructional objective of occupational proficiency as defined in the Federal Vocational Training Act of 2005. While the regulatory instruments describe precisely how the vocational training has to bring about attainment of the objectives, the instructions on conducting examinations remain somewhat vague. One problem is to resolve the tension between examination quality and economy. After an exposition of the legal bases, the article turns attention on this dilemma.