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At regional level, VET is incorporated into the overall provision of education measures. Various educational establishments operate locally to deliver this totality of education services, including providers of initial and continuing VET. From a local government perspective, this is the object of communal education management which aims to serve every facet of civic society’s educational interest. A federal programme entitled “Local Learning”, and its continuation in the “Local Government Education Management Transfer Initiative”, shows how local government education management can be structured and how it can be further developed via transfer support. We will illustrate the experiences and results that have emerged from these programmes and map out the consequences for VET.

VET is tasked with promoting professional and societal competence in equal measure. Service learning – learning by involvement – is a didactic format for this that links curricular contents with social engagement. The article presents the didactic foundation of service learning and illustrates it based on an example from VET practice. It then goes on to demonstrate the effectiveness of this learning format for the learners’ development.

Berufsbildung hat den Auftrag, berufliche und gesellschaftliche Handlungsfähigkeit gleichermaßen zu fördern. Service Learning – Lernen durch Engagement – stellt hierfür ein didaktisches Format dar, bei dem curriculare Inhalte mit zivilgesellschaftlichem Engagement verknüpft werden. Im Beitrag werden die didaktischen Grundlagen von Service Learning vorgestellt und anhand eines Beispiels aus der berufsschulischen Praxis illustriert. Die Wirksamkeit des Lernformats für die Entwicklung der Auszubildenden wird abschließend aufgezeigt.

Lukas Brandl, born in 1993, completed his training as an electronics technician for automation technology with Evonik Technology & Infrastructure GmbH at their site in Marl in January 2017. In autumn, he will finish his “Industrial Service Management” dual course of study at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences. He used the time between completing his training and starting his Bachelor’s thesis for a two-month placement abroad at the Evonik's site in the city of Mobile, Alabama.

Following her intermediate school leaving certificate, Lena Langguth, who was born in 1995, started her training as management assistant for retail services at Müller Ltd. & Co. KG in Aschaffenburg. With help from Erasmus+, it was possible for her to complete a three-week placement in a shop belonging to the Oxfam aid organisation in Brighton, England.

Career guidance and counselling are recognized as crucial dimension of lifelong learning, in particular, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of education and the development of individual Career Management Skills. The article describes frame conditions of career education and guidance services within the educational system in Finland from comprehensive school to adult learning. Thereby the author addresses the strength of the finish guidance-system as well as the need for reforms with regard to future challenges ahead.

Young people wishing to commence training, higher education study or employment in another country require professional and high-quality guidance. This article presents a design concept which allows career guidance professionals to provide a service which is methodologically competent, well-structured and aligned to respective personal needs. An interactive learning portal is also in place to offer the professionals didactic support in adopting the concept.

Communication at work is becoming increasingly significant in a service society. At the same time, companies are complaining ever more frequently about the lack of language and communication competences displayed by apprentice and job applicants. What is the nature of the role played by language in vocational training and at the workplace? The papers contained within the present issue address this question as well as dealing with the importance of language for the development of employability skills, with provision and concepts for language learning and with the significance of foreign language competence in a world of work which is becoming increasingly globalised. Following the introduction of the German Qualifications Framework in January 2012, BIBB President Professor Friedrich Hubert Esser uses his Editorial to urge its vitalisation and for plenty of energy to continue to be devoted to implementation.
Further papers address didactic issues relating to competence orientation and forms of continuing training funding based on collective wage agreement regulation. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) initiative "Vocational education and training – practically unbeatable" is also presented.

The articles in this issue of BWP examine the importance and function of guidance services in the context of lifelong learning. This will be done first of all with an eye to certain target groups / certain fields and secondly in light of the question "What potential can guidance services tap in order to create transparency in a very complex (continuing) training market?" In his commentary in this issue of BWP, Professor Dr Reinhold Weiß, head of research at BIBB, draws attention to the heterogeneity of this field and argues for better linking of service offerings, improving and stabilizing structures and emphasizes the importance of systematic but differentiated training for skilled workers. Among the other articles in this issue are an appraisal of the current status of the German Qualifications Framework and a report on the requirements and challenges involved in developing adapted occupations in the United Arab Emirates.

The focus of this issue is on lifelong learning. Ten articles provide readers a well-informed survey of current figures on continuing in-company vocational training in Europe, a snapshot of the mood among continuing training providers in Germany, and the latest on trends in continuing education financing, education savings schemes and continuing education and training concepts for older workers. In the blickpunkt special focus interview, Professor Ekkehard Nuissl argues in favour of more public-sector responsibility for lifelong learning. In his commentary "Continuing vocational training: Advisory services are needed!", Professor Dr Reinhold Weiß, Director of Research at BIBB, sums up the key findings from the Committee on Innovation in Continuing Training and emphasizes the need to put adopted measures into practice. Other topics covered in issue 1/2008 include the vocational transition system as an area for municipal action in connection with the labour market, education and youth policies. In the BWP interview, Professor KARL WILBERS provides a preview of the extensive programme at the 2008 Conference on Vocational Training on "Quality in Schools and Establishments" in Nuremberg.