Having well-qualified education and training personnel makes a significant contribution to high-quality vocational education and training. However, the responsibilities and requirements of teachers involved in initial and continuing education and training are changing in light of the transforming landscape of education and training. Meeting the challenges associated with this requires measures and initiatives beyond the minimum statutory standards and conventional advanced training in order to support vocational education training personnel on this path. This issue focusses on concepts for the training of vocational education and training personnel in Germany and abroad.
In 2013, more students entered university for the first time than started dual vocational education and training. Even if double the number of school leavers with the university education entrance qualification has contributed to this development, this does reflect a general trend towards higher level education. Is dual vocational education and training no longer sufficiently attractive for applicants with qualifications for higher education? This article examines this question.
The number of teaching staff entering vocational training in Switzerland contrasts strongly with those entering general-education schools at secondary level. Differences are also apparent in the pedagogic training and in the motives behind career choices. This article provides an introductory outline of these differences and presents the motives for the choice of a teaching career based on an empirical study. In conclusion, the results of the study are discussed with regard to the recruitment of vocational school teachers, their satisfaction with their career and potential methods for support.
There is a high level of professionalization in the initial and continuing education and training of teachers at vocational schools. A university degree ensures a professional standard and the practical school-based teaching practice with a seminar structure ensures that prospective teachers have sufficient practical teaching expertise. But does a higher professional standard also mean a higher degree of professionalism for the teaching profession and the work involved? And which concepts can the combined efforts of institutions involved in initial and continuing education and training of teachers use to enable successful life-long work as a teacher in vocational schools? The article examines these issues for the German state of Saxony Anhalt.
In recent years the issue of the pedagogic professionalization of staff in continuing education has been widely discussed. Based on the latest results of the wbmonitor, the article looks at the issue of which requirements continuing education providers currently rank as particularly relevant when selecting teachers. The results show that certified pedagogic qualifications are of less importance. Due mainly to the structural heterogeneity of the continuing education sector, agreement on uniform entry requirements for teaching in continuing education seems almost impossible to achieve.
Although continuing training staff are of central significance in terms of assuring the quality of training processes within a company, very few empirical findings regarding those involved in delivering company-based continuing training have thus far been available. The present article takes data from the German additional survey to accompany the fourth European Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS4) as a basis for investigating the extent of institutionalisation of company-based continuing training in companies offering such training and how professionally continuing training staff are deployed.
Demographic changes require a structured organisation for the transfer of competence within the business. The training of junior staff plays a central role in this. For those individuals responsible for initial and continuing education and training in companies, well-conceived personnel development concepts are therefore needed from which the training personnel in particular may also be able to benefit.
In the interview, two training managers highlight the opportunities provided by a rotation model - that is switching between the area of specialism and education. The dovetailing of the levels related to the specialism and to vocational education contributes not only to increasing the quality of training in the company, but also offers company-based training personnel attractive development options.
On the one hand, dual degree courses are very popular, but on the other there is often a lack of effective coordination between the university degree course and the practical phases. Although cooperation between »practice« and »university« in terms of learning venues requires the commitment of both sides, a project by the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg university, the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) and the BIBB sets out to test in an initial step how the understanding of company-based supervisors of students and degree courses can be improved. The article presents the conception and objective of a two-day seminar at the DGUV academy and describes the initial experiences.
The Master of Science degree course in vocational training has been offered since 2007 at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training EHB IFFP IUFFP in Switzerland. It aims to educate and train specialists involved in the further development of vocational training both in Switzerland and in an international context. The article presents the background to the development of the course, its profile and its objectives. It also highlights the students at whom the course is targeted and in which roles and areas the graduates of this specialised curriculum are employed.
At the end of 2012, Germany and Portugal concluded a vocational education and training cooperation agreement with the aim of supporting the reform endeavours in the latter country. One of the main focuses of cooperation thus far has been the training of company-based VET staff, who play an essential role in supporting and implementing the reforms. The present article reports on a bilateral project, in which a vocational teaching training measure for company-based tutors was developed and piloted.
Anke Dreesbach; Anne Görgen-Engels; Friederike Wiethölter
The increasing globalization, changed demographic developments and heterogeneous target groups constantly place new demands on the competences of training personnel in terms of specialism, didactic methodology and inter-cultural aspects. In light of this, the following article outlines the opportunities which Erasmus+ may contribute to the professionalization of training personnel in the European context.
It seems that young people are increasingly less interested in vocational education and training and are turning increasingly instead to a degree course. In 2013, the number of new entrants in the higher education sector was higher than in dual vocational education and training as per Vocational Training Act/Crafts Code. The discussion surrounding the academization in Germany is characterized by concerns about a skills shortage in the mid-qualification segment. The extent to which the ratio between vocational education and training has actually shifted is examined in this article based on data currently available from official statistics.
It has been a long time since it was possible to discuss and respond to issues relating to the future of vocational education and training solely within national contexts. The German VET system has been embedded into cross-border developments since as early as the 1980’s, when European educational programmes were established. Nevertheless, international vocational education and training topics have gained considerably in significance over recent years. The present article outlines three areas of activity in which the challenges of internationalisation are discernible.
Training occupations may be differentiated by the nature of their inner structuring. Alongside so-called mono occupations, which do not exhibit any differences in terms of content, there are occupations with features such as specialisms, main focuses or elective qualifications. During procedures for the updating of training occupations, the question which constantly arises is how and in accordance with which criteria training occupations should be structured. The present article addresses this issue on the basis of a BIBB research project. As well as characteristics of individual structural models and the delineations and overlaps of such models, we present typical rationale patterns for structural model decisions. These are finally included in a possible heuristic for the criteria-led structuring of training occupations.
The main focus of the summer meeting of the board chaired by ELKE HANNACK, were the initiatives for the advising and retaining of those leaving degree courses without completing vocational education and training, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and its potential impact on the training sector and training services and the preparations for the pending re-evaluation of the BIBB by the Science Council.