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The articles compiled in this special edition, all of which were published in BWP in recent months, offer an overview of current trends and developments within the German system of vocational education and training, with a particular focus on questions of skills shortage, permeability and monitoring VET. By making them available in English, we wish to foster the exchange of ideas and experiences about VET on an international level in order to give new impulses for the discussion and development of vocational education and training.
People are not always employed in jobs that perfectly match their skills and abilities. Research on the question as to what constitutes a good match is usually based on the empirical correspondence between employees’ formal qualifications and the formal qualification requirements of their jobs, but so far no up-to-date and in-depth information exists on the incidence of skill-based mismatching in Germany. This article uses the BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey 2006, which yields rich information fitting the job-requirement approach, to provide up-to-date and in-depth figures on the incidence of formal and skill-based mismatching in Germany. Moreover, it studies the extent to which mismatching varies with employees’ socio-demographic and qualification characteristics and with job tasks.
MINT occupations, the umbrella term for job qualifications involving mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology, are often cited as a prime example of the imminent skills shortage. This apparent perception of a skills shortage is the subject of the following article. The principal question is whether there is actually any problem with the supply of newly qualified workers. With the help of reference data from official statistics on this occupational field and the first interpretations of the BIBB-IAB Qualification and Major Occupational Field Projections, the article aims to give a more nuanced description of the real situation in this occupational field.
“Trainees – a scarce commodity“ was the headline in Technology Review in December 2009. Increasingly often this kind of report appears in the press, drawing attention to the impacts of demographic change, falling numbers of school-leavers, fewer applicants for training places and the resulting unfilled apprenticeship vacancies. Since this demographic downturn is set to continue for the time being, the question that arises is, what are companies doing in order to get hold of this “scarce commodity“? The article focuses on the beginning of the process of filling an apprenticeship vacancy – i. e. recruiting potential applicants – and the strategies adopted by companies.
Anke Bahl; Agnes Dietzen; Marlies Dorsch-Schweizer
This article examines the options open to companies for meeting qualifications needs, with particular attention to company-based initial and continuing vocational education and training (IVET/ CVET). It presents selected results from a survey of experts which shed light on present assumptions about the trend for companies to recruit more academically qualified employees and erosion of the significance of occupational training in the workplace. The findings show that companies are increasingly relying on internal recruitment strategies and developing initiatives to combine company-based competence development with academic learning. Far from exhibiting a general bias towards academic qualifications, companies are seeking to recruit staff from diverse educational backgrounds.
Towards permeability: Opening pathways to education and training
The vocational education and training system has undergone considerable change during the past 20 years. Large numbers of vocational preparation schemes or programmes leading to partial vocational qualification have grown up alongside the dual system of vocational education and training, but these only provide some of the young people concerned with successful transitions into vocational training leading to a recognised qualification. Over the course of recent years, numerous programmes and initiatives have been introduced at an individual, regional and structural level in an attempt to increase the efficiency of the transition system. September 2010 brought the launch of the BMBF Initiative “Chains of educational progression through to initial vocational qualification.”
Recent years have seen a marked increase in the numbers completing the transition into higher education. The target of 40 per cent of an age cohort embarking on a degree programme has not only been achieved but surpassed. It is only a matter of time before this trend pays off in the form of higher numbers of graduates in the German labour market, exposing skilled workers who have qualified via the vocational pathway to heightened competition. As yet, it remains to be seen what impact this will have on different occupations and sectors. Meanwhile it is all the more important to make progress in the direction of permeability and parity between educational pathways, so that people with vocational qualifications can take advantage of the opportunities.
For years now, Germany has witnessed steadily growing interest in dual courses of study, i. e. degree programmes that combine academic with vocational learning. A prime reason for their growing significance is that by integrating both dimensions they make it possible to equip skilled workers with fully-rounded qualifications for demanding roles in the workplace. This article describes current developments, drawing upon data from the AusbildungPlus (TrainingPlus) database.
To tailor the development of skilled workers to the industry’s needs, as of August 2009 a processoriented system of continuing vocational education and training (CVET) has been instituted in the German electrical and electronics sector: having completed initial vocational education and training (IVET) in an electrical and electronics training occupation, skilled workers can pursue further CVET to qualify as Specialists and then gain a second-stage recognised qualification as a Certified Process Manager in Electrics/Electronics (Operative Professional). The realisation of a third-stage advanced training qualification (Strategic Professional) is planned for 2012. This article outlines the innovative structure and the standards governing the content of this new advanced training model. It focuses on the potential of this form of CVET, which is work-process-oriented, undertaken in tandem with work to keep pace with constant advances in technology and organisation.
As a consequence of introducing the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), according to the Recommendation of the European Parliament and Council of April 23, 2008, “access to and participation in lifelong learning ... and the use of qualifications [should] be promoted and improved at national and Community level.” Furthermore, the EQF should build bridges between formal, non-formal and informal learning and contribute to the validation of learning outcomes. This article considers whether, and if so, how the EQF – and particularly the German Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning – can promote and strengthen the recognition of non-formal and informal learning. In addressing this line of inquiry, the authors make reference to two recent expertises on this subject.
Germany’s National Education Report, first published in 2006, is the first comprehensive report covering all areas of education. However, ongoing reporting in the field of vocational education and training (VET) has been in place for more than 30 years in the form of the Report on Vocational Education and Training published by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) has thus far been involved with the preparation of this report within the scope of ist statutory functions. Following a realignment of the Report on Vocational Education and Training in 2009, BIBB now issues the Data Report, a new standard work on VET. The Data Report is based on selected indicators and depicts the main developments within initial and continuing vocational education and training within an international context. In addition, different focal topics are dealt with each year.
A smooth transition from initial vocational training into employment is a fundamental pre - requisite for establishing successful career trajectories. However, not all young people who complete a dual-system apprenticeship negotiate this “second threshold” transition with uniformly positive results. An analysis of Microcensus data shows that outcomes vary depending on the level of school-leaving qualifications and the chosen field of initial vocational training.
Most companies in Germany do not provide incompany vocational training for young people. What are their reasons for this, how do these companies meet their skilled labour needs, and what can be done to increase the share of companies that provide in-company vocational training? These questions are the focus of BIBB’s Company Survey on the Recruitment of Skilled Workers.
BIBB launched a Research Data Centre (BIBB-FDZ) in 2008. The FDZ processes the microdata from BIBB research projects and makes the respective data sets available to external researchers and scholars for their own analysis. As a constitutive part of the German Data Infrastructure coordinated by the German Data Forum (RatSWD), BIBB-FDZ helps to reduce the workload and costs involved in conducting data surveys in the field of vocational education and training (VET) by assisting external researchers in the use of existing data.