New Federal Government strategy for international cooperation in vocational education and training

German vocational education and training expertise is in demand all over the world. GOVET received 230 enquiries from abroad in 2018 alone. German international VET cooperation stakeholders are continuing to expand their worldwide commitment. Global mega trends such as the transformation of the world of work brought about by digitalisation, an increase in migration movements across the planet, climate change and globalisation are, however, creating new challenges. The Federal Government is now seeking to take even greater account of these prevailing general conditions. For this reason, the “Strategy of the Federal Government on international cooperation in vocational education and training from a single source”, originally adopted in 2013, was formally extended on 22 May 2019.

The diverse activities undertaken by Germany should be more closely interlinked in future. The strategy updates instruments relating to coordination and agreement and adds the further objective of achieving synergies and complementarity between individual initiatives. The goal is for joint planning measures to enhance the effectiveness of German cooperation in vocational education and training and make German commitment even more visible.

This joint strategic alignment is already being successfully implemented in India, where elements of dual training are being introduced into VET clusters. Strategies for cooperation agreements with other countries are already being developed. GOVET is supporting the Federal Government in drawing up these country strategies. A further plan is for joint activities to be subjected to independent evaluation on a regular basis.

The federal ministries have used a participative process to pursue the further development of the 2013 strategy. This has also involved consultation with members of a Round Table for International Cooperation made up of representatives from trade and industry and civil society. GOVET provided procedural support for the strategy development work undertaken by government departments.