Standardised national chamber examinations, exemplified by the central task-setting role of the AkA

The Federal Vocational Training Act (BBiG) confers important tasks on German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (IHKs) including the administration of final and intermediate examinations. At an early stage, they established jointly run, centralised institutions for task-setting so as to ensure quality, comparability and objectivity. The article gives insights into procedures and standards for setting written IHK examination tasks on a centralised basis. It begins by looking into national standardisation and the framework conditions of IHK examinations, before setting out concepts and quality assurance elements exemplified by the central task-setting body for commerce examinations, the AkA (Aufgabenstelle für kaufmännische Abschluss- und Zwischenprüfungen).