The selectivity of Germany's general education system has been confirmed time and again in comparative international studies. But what does the picture look like in Germany's vocational education and training (VET) system? Has it been possible to open the VET system to the various target groups with their particular competences and interests and to foster them in ways that are geared to the available resources and to meeting existing needs? This issue of BWP revolves around the question of how the German vocational education and training system's capacity for integration currently looks in social and economic terms and how it can be strengthened.
In his editorial for this issue, BIBB president Manfred Kremer stresses that the recognition of diversity benefits everyone and calls for making better use - in both the general education system and the vocational education and training system - of the advantages diversity offers.
Other articles in this issue examine the new classification system for occupations (KldB 2010), the structuring of training occupations and experience gathered with the third track in vocational training in North Rhine-Westphalia.