Inclusive vocational training – wishful thinking or a realistic prospect?

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.