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With around 230 nationally recognised occupations requiring advanced vocational certification, the German vocational education and training system provides attractive career development options. But can this be sustained in the context of a growing trend towards academic qualifications (academicisation) in the world of work?
The magazine is devoted to this qualification pathway which is a typical pattern in dual systems of vocational education and training. It includes reports from four recently qualified holders of advanced vocational certificates, who talk about their motives, experiences and career perspectives. Equally important topics in this issue are participation figures and appraisal of the benefits of upgrading training programmes from the viewpoint of individuals and companies, questions about the instructional design of advanced vocational training courses, the allocation of advanced vocational certificates to levels in the German national qualifications framework (DQR), and international developments in the tertiary sector of education and training.
In view of the prevailing trend towards academicisation the President of BIBB, Prof. Dr. Esser, uses the Editorial to emphasise the significance of a permeable education and training system for individual training and career trajectories, and specifies what needs to be done from the viewpoint of vocational education and training.
In Germany, a recognised advanced vocational qualification is normally gained following initial vocational training and several years of experience in a recognised occupation. It paves the way for promotion to higher-grade positions, particularly for people without a higher education entrance qualification. Traditional upgrading positions of this kind seem to be declining in significance, however, in the face of changing structures within companies and increasing competition from employees with university degrees. Microcensus data and the BIBB/BAuA Employment Surveys are used to trace developments over the past thirty years.
The options for progression from initial vocational training and for broadening occupational competences through state-regulated advanced vocational qualifications are important factors in the attractiveness of German vocational education and training. They offer employees who have qualified via the vocational pathway the prospect of extending the range of tasks they can handle and taking on responsible specialist and management roles. Currently, however, Germany's recognised and proven advanced vocational training regulations are faced with new challenges, and the system requires continuous development to ensure that they retain their attractiveness in future. The article shines a light on relevant developments and specifies possible fields of action.
Switzerland’s higher vocational and professional education and training system emerged historically from its heterogeneous and barely regulated system of continuing vocational education and training, and today constitutes the non-academic segment of Swiss tertiary-level education. In the Vocational and Professional Education and Training Act of 2002 it was enshrined as Tertiary Level B alongside the university-track Tertiary Level A, a decision that distinctly boosted its value within education policy. This article looks back at the development of the vocational tertiary level and discusses how the different higher vocational and professional education and training courses have positioned themselves in the system. It also examines the dilemmas surrounding the reform efforts currently in progress.
What makes upgrading training attractive from the viewpoint of those gaining the qualifications? What was their motivation, and to what extent have the advanced vocational qualifications influenced their career progression? The four people interviewed talk about their motivations, expectations and future plans. Their varying starting positions and pathways to the advanced vocational qualifications become apparent. All the interviewees emphasise that their chosen qualification has opened up new career prospects and helped them to improve their chances on the labour market, and that they feel encouraged to keep working actively on shaping their future careers.
In Germany a regulated vocational upgrading training course is normally completed after initial vocational training in the dual system and several years of experience. Its purpose is to facilitate promotion to higher-grade positions. How successful are skilled workers with upgrading qualifications in the labour market, and what is the nature of this success? Are women just as successful as men? And what are the advantages of an upgrading qualification over a dual-system initial vocational qualification? The article explores these questions on the basis of the 2012 BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey with reference to objective and subjective indicators on career success.
From a Switzerland-wide company survey of over 800 recruitment managers, recently conducted for the first time, it emerges that the diplomas and titles from “higher vocational and professional education and training” (höhere Berufsbildung, HBB) enjoy a high status on the Swiss labour market today and are well established. What the survey also shows, however, is that continuous work on positioning must be done if HBB is to remain attractive amid the rising trend towards academic qualifications (academicisation) in the world of work. Key findings of the study are presented in the article.
OECD data for the period from 1995 to 2010 point to an enormous upturn in participants in academic courses. At the same time, vocational and practice-related training courses in the tertiary sector of education are stagnating. The question addressed in the article is how far it is justified, against this backdrop, to speak about academicisation, or whether it is not rather the case that the detailed content of tertiary education programmes is drifting in a “vocationally oriented” direction.
Despite the banking sector’s high proportion of employees with higher education entrance qualifications, dual initial and advanced vocational training has been the dominant training strategy to date. But will the sector continue to withstand the general increasing trend towards academicisation? And what options are available for maintaining the attractiveness of these traditionally evolved structures for advanced vocational training in future? With reference to data on the current and future employment situation in the banking sector, the article reflects on requirements for the future design of upgrading routes for the sector. In the process, it shines a light on new parameters and opportunities presented by the introduction of the DQR.
Action and competence orientation have been established since the 1990s as the guiding principles of dual-system initial vocational training. This standard is now being implemented successively in advanced vocational training. The article highlights the teaching and learning challenges involved in the implementation of curricula, giving examples from the preparation courses for Part III of the Master Craftsman’s examination and reflecting on the consequences.
According to UNESCO, inclusion in the sense implied by the slogan “education for all” means that all people – irrespective of special educational needs, gender, social and economic criteria – have the opportunity to participate in good quality education. In the German dual system, this would mean guaranteeing direct access to initial vocational training for all school-leavers interested in training, without having to establish their “apprenticeship entry maturity” beforehand in the transition system. Any corresponding reform of the vocational training system would depend upon meeting a vast number of prerequisites, however. The article describes the reactions of vocational education and training experts to such an initiative, and how they rate its chances of realisation.
As part of a demonstration project, an overarching scheme was to be developed for the individual support of participants in a rehabilitative preparation course. One of the components of this scheme was a learning diary specifically developed for this purpose. In addition to the concrete design of the learning diary and its integration into the overall scheme of instruction, the article outlines the potentials and challenges with regard to the target group of “individuals in occupational rehabilitation”.
Every year around 30,000 individuals in Germany complete an examination for nationally standardised, advanced vocational qualifications in commercial occupations at Master Craftsman/Bachelor level. The significance of these occupational qualifications and their assignment to Level 6 of the German national qualifications framework (DQR) have encouraged the development of strategies for standardising the relevant advanced training regulations over the past few years. The article sets out functions of these occupations, presents BIBB’s action and process-oriented conception for qualifications spanning various occupations (berufsübergreifende Qualifikationen, BeQua), and gives an insight into discussions about structures which accompany the implementation of these in future training regulations.
The German National Qualifications Framework (DQR) in practice
The Board of BIBB’s recommendation of March 12, 2014 for terms of reference on the structure and quality assurance of advanced vocational training is an important contribution to making the quality of Germany-wide advanced vocational qualifications transparent, and the principle of allocation to a German national qualifications framework (DQR) level to establish equivalence with university qualifications. The article sets out the key points of the recommendation and highlights further-reaching action needed from the viewpoint of employees.