Indicators-based vocational education and training reporting in Germany – the foundations for policy advice

Evidence-based policy advice has increased in significance over recent years, and various foundations have been created for this purpose. Examples include international competence assessment studies such as TIMMS and PISA, and there have also been surveys in the form of PIAAC or the German Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which is used to investigate lifelong educational processes. In vocational education and training, evidence-based policy advice in the form of VET reporting has a tradition which goes back as far as the 1970s and is also firmly established in statutory terms. After a brief outlining of the basic principles and development of evidence-based policy advice, the article presents examples of two newer indicators that describe the training situation and goes on to explore the scope of these for indicators-based VET reporting.