Challenges for regionally coordinated vocational school development

 
Federal state laws require local government school providers to submit school development planning programmes. Because vocational education and training in Germany typically features a large number of stakeholders and interweaving systems controlled by central and federal state regulations and trends, development planning for vocational schools operates at the edge of governability. The present article begins by describing the general problem situations inherent in such development planning and outlines possible options for regional coordination in the vocational schools sector. It showcases a case study in Hessen which is endeavouring to achieve regional cooperation and uses the problem of specialist classes within the dual system as a basis for stating some of the challenges facing targeted regional vocational school development.