Be bold and take action

Dear readers

The labour market figures are worrying. The skilled worker and labour force shortage in Germany will exacerbate by 2030. Economists are predicting that a potential labour volume of 3.2 billion hours will be lost due to age-related reasons alone. The skilled worker gap will grow larger in the next few years, especially at expert and specialist level. A strong vocational education and training system can only help to mitigate the problem if it is able to meet the needs of a transformative age. Further developments are a must if this is to take place.

Viewing vocational and academic qualifications as equivalent

The trend towards academisation over recent years has led to a loss of importance for initial and continuing VET. The focus must be on halting this trend and on improving the reputation of VET in society. For this reason, we require a clear political signal of the equivalence of vocational and academic training. The best way of achieving this is via juridification of the German Qualifications Framework (DQR).

Making VET more flexible, more inclusive and more effective

Vocational education and training needs to stand for permanent employability and therefore also for individual economic independence. In order for this to happen, it has to become more flexible, more inclusive and more effective. VET must no longer be viewed as a supposed “uniform training”. Differentiation should occur to the extent necessary for various groups of persons and learning abilities to be taken into account. We wish to offer initial and continuing training to the largest possible number of school leavers in accordance with their varying abilities, but we should stop directing our attention solely towards them. We should also have greater regard for refugees, for people changing careers, for higher education drop-outs; and for the long-term unemployed, all of whom need appropriate training provision that offers them prospects. We must look to tap into all possible areas of potential so that training can be used to create a route into gainful employment. This also means that modular vocational education provision below the level of training must be enshrined in regulatory policy and form part of our VET system. If such programmes are completed successfully, they should open up entry into VET and a credit transfer should be given for their duration. As an economic and education and training location, Germany cannot afford to have 2.9 million people under the age of 35 without a vocational qualification!

We also need more attractive provision for higher ability trainees. Additional qualifications should be included in all training regulations. Furthermore, we should ensure that binding career pathways leading from training into higher VET are in place for all occupations in order to strengthen the excellence of vocational education and training. Such concepts are an important step in terms of making VET more competitive vis-à-vis academic education.

Supplementing the examination system with a validation system

If we wish to facilitate individual and incremental learning, we will ultimately need opportunities to be able to ascertain and certify individual learning statuses and progress. For this reason, we must supplement the formal education system by adding a standardised validation system for ad hoc competency assessments. Well-trained skilled workers are essential to a successful transformation, yet another reason why we should not wait any longer to modernise vocational education and training. We must be bold and take action!

Professor Friedrich Hubert Esser
President of BIBB

Translation from the German original (published in BWP 3/2024): Martin Kelsey, GlobalSprachTeam, Berlin