50 years of the BBiG – a guide and a stimulus for the further development of vocational education and training

Dear readers,

The Berufsbildungsgesetz (BBiG) [Vocational Training Act] has reached the age of 50. Is this worthy of attention? Is it right to celebrate the birthday of a law? I think we should do so! The BBiG is of special significance to VET in Germany and therefore to BIBB too, just as it was 50 years ago.

Once controversial – now a guarantor of high quality

Although the Act was still an object of strong controversy upon its entry into force on 1 September 1969, it has gained more and more adherents over the course of the decades. Today, the BBiG is the accepted guarantor of the quality of VET in Germany. It is characterised by flexibility and thus enables stakeholders working in the field to identify the best possible solutions.

Prior to 1969, the major tasks connected with VET were mainly performed by trade and industry. They saw the securing of a supply of skilled workers as a remit which was exclusive to them. In broadly based educational policy debates that took place in the 1960s, law makers addressed the long-standing demands of the trade unions to assume responsibility for VET.

The BBiG focused on quality, thus serving the interests of individuals and companies in equal measure and created nationally standardised regulations for training and the examination system in all sectors of the economy. Training regulations were accorded state recognition. The rights and obligations of trainees and training providers were thus uniformly stipulated in a special form of employment law relating to training contracts. An academic research institution, the Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildungsforschung (BBF) [Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training Research], was founded in 1970. This was the predecessor of BIBB.

Then as now, the state was aware that VET can only function effectively if the essential stakeholders join forces. Apart from the Federal Government and the federal states, these stakeholders particularly comprise the social partners and the chamber organisations. The Act secures their influence in areas such as rights of co-determination on the BIBB Board. The collaborative approach adopted towards finding sustainable solutions has always been marked by a practical embracing of the principle of consensus.

Sufficient scope for necessary further developments

But what about the current validity of the BBiG in the year 2019? Can we use it to tackle current challenges such as digitalisation and the need to enhance the attractiveness of the VET system? Again, my response is a clear one. Yes! The planned reform of the BBiG will also offer an opportunity to generate impetuses for the further development of VET. In fundamental terms, the law is set out in such a way so as to afford stakeholders in the fields of policy and practice sufficient leeway to pursue this necessary further development. Relevant aspects include, for example, establishing the German Qualifications Framework (DQR) and taking account of the growing significance of continuing VET. The Act is, however, also capable of reinforcing developments and of using instruments which provide users at a local level with an assurance that they are acting in a legally compliant way, for instance when they draw up their own regulations for part-time training programmes or for periods of time spent abroad during training. Indeed, these points were addressed in the reform of 2005.

The BBiG thus provides BIBB with a rigorous remit in terms of the extensive and diverse tasks the Institute carries out in the areas of research, regulation and provision of VET services. We see the 50th birthday of the BBiG both as a stimulus and a guide in terms of continuing to make future indispensable contributions to the ongoing development of the VET system in Germany.

FRIEDRICH HUBERT ESSER
Prof. Dr., President of BIBB

Translation from the German original (published in BWP 5/2019): Martin Kelsey, GlobalSprachTeam, Berlin