The initial vocational training guarantee – a route to inclusion in vocational education and training?

The theme of inclusion is rising in prominence in vocational education and training since different groups of individuals continue to be disadvantaged in their search for training places. In its Guidelines for Inclusion, UNESCO calls for access to high quality education to be possible for all, and for individual development to be fostered. This article takes a look at the approach of the initial vocational training guarantee as a means of putting this aspiration into practice. Drawing on experience with this model in Austria, it considers opportunities for better integration into initial vocational training and outlines one possible form of implementation for Germany from the viewpoint of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB).