Building (and extending) bridges between higher and vocational education through cross-cutting education programmes

It is clear from the example of the IT occupations that rising demand for skilled workers cannot be addressed solely with more higher education qualifications, but that differentiated competence profiles are necessary. Additional options are called for, which integrate elements of academic and vocational education and thereby facilitate reciprocal transitions between the different educational sectors. The article presents how the “DQR Bridge 5” project is developing cross-cutting education measures at Level 5 of the German Qualifications Framework (DQR), for which credit transfer can be granted within the framework of a regulated continuous vocational education and training and a Bachelor’s degree programme.

Qualification needs and possible training pathways, exemplified by the IT occupations

Thanks to the digitalisation of the economy, the status of IT occupations and their penetration of the workforce structure has increased significantly in almost all branches of the economy in the last 15 years. A further indicator of this is the trend in initial vocational training contracts in this area. Trainee figures have risen particularly in the initial vocational training occupation of Information Technology Specialist (“Fachinformatiker”). Approximately 15,000 new training contracts (as of 2014) are concluded every year in the IT occupations (cf. Figure 1). The overall qualification structure in the IT sector, according to data from BITKOM (2010), shows that around half of those employed there possess an academic degree. More than one third has a dual-system initial vocational qualification and – an equally significant feature – around ten per cent are autodidacts and lateral entrants from other fields. The Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) takes the view that a general shortage of skilled IT workers is not currently an issue. In the fields of informatics and software development, however, a shortage of experts is evident in almost all federal states (Länder) in Germany (cf. BA 2014, p. 11). The causes are not confined to technical developments but also include, for example, new integration approaches and interfaces between information technology, production technology and work. This gives rise to very complex bundles of work tasks for skilled IT workers, which demand specialisation and continuing vocational education on the basis of the initial vocational qualifications in recognised training occupations.

Figure 1: Newly concluded training contracts as of 30.09., from 2004 to 2014

Figure 2: Possible education and training pathways within the IT occupations

The options for advanced vocational training within the framework of the vocational education and training system are wide ranging. Figure 2 gives a general overview of possible training pathways in the framework of upgrading training within the IT occupations. Upgrading training programmes are regulated according to Länder and Federal law and are possible within the framework of higher education courses.

In contrast to many other occupational fields, however, no Master Craftsman qualifications have yet been introduced in the industrial IT occupations. In 2002, instead, a nationally standardised advanced vocational training concept came into force. The three-tier advanced training regulation for IT¹ aligned to the German national qualifications framework (DQR) provides for 14 Certified IT Specialist (“IT-Spezialist”) profiles on the first tier (DQR 5). Evidence of certification as a Certified IT Specialist is part of the admission requirement for examination as an Operative IT Professional (DQR 6). On this tier there are four different Professional profiles in total. On the third tier, qualification as Strategic Professional (DQR 7) is possible by gaining certification as either a Certified Information Technologist (“Geprüfter Informatiker”) or a Certified IT Business Engineer (“Geprüfter Wirtschaftsinformatiker”).

Counter to the expectations vested in this concept, compared with Master Craftsman regulations in other vocational fields it is little used. In the year 2013 only 500 skilled workers in the whole of Germany gained certification as Operative Professionals. Statistics for the Strategic Professional and the Certified IT Specialist qualifications are not available. Certificates for the latter may be awarded not only by the competent bodies but also by companies. Consequently there is a certain lack of transparency. Higher education degree courses present an alternative for individuals interested in advanced vocational training.

These can be taken either as a full-time study programme or by distance learning in conjunction with employment. This option is favoured by many thanks to the fact that more than one out of two initial vocational trainees in these occupations is in possession of a general or subject-specific higher education entrance qualification (HEEQ). Furthermore, on the basis of the resolution of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (Kultusministerkonferenz, KMK) of 06.03.2009, even skilled workers without an HEEQ are eligible to commence higher education studies if they have three years of occupational practice or an advanced vocational qualification involving a minimum of 400 taught hours.

For the training/employing company, however, the direct degree course route usually means losing the employee, in the first instance, as well as uncertainty as to whether they will return after completing their studies. To that extent, from the perspective of company human resources staff, training pathways which tend to strengthen or at least uphold retention within the company are advantageous. For characterisation of the situation in the higher education sector, reference can be made to the following data: according to the BIBB Transition Study (BIBB-Übergangsstudie) 2011, of the 1,341,091 18- to 24-year-olds who started a degree programme between 2005 and 2011, 40,866 majored in computing as their first subject.²

Potential for cross-cutting training measures at Level 5 of the DQR

In order to meet a rising demand for skilled workers, efforts in recent years have been focused on raising the proportion of graduates. Current projections of labour market development show, however, that boosting university graduate numbers alone does not solve the skilled workforce problem; indeed, precisely in the IT sector, high-value vocational qualifications are needed (cf. MAIER et al. 2014). It is therefore problematic that in the education and training policy discourse, permeability is understood and fostered very one-sidedly: namely by means of new access pathways into higher education for those with vocational qualifications.

This weakens dual education and training. Measures are called for which build bridges between the sectors in both directions so that the permeability achieved is reciprocal, strengthening vocational education and training as a receiving system, too. For this purpose, training offers should be designed so as to be directly transferable towards the desired qualifications in the respective sectors of education and training. They could be placed at Level 5 of the DQR. DQR Level 5 can offer a promising platform for education and training measures since it can facilitate both the step-through to advanced vocational qualifications, for instance from Certified IT Specialist to IT Professional, as well as access to Bachelor’s degree programmes, for instance in Informatics, both at DQR Level 6. Transitions into vocational training for university dropouts can also be facilitated. To this end, models are being developed in the “DQR Bridge 5” project (cf. box) for the IT sector³, among others, which are based on interlocking curricula in vocational and higher education. The DQR serves as a foundation and, equally, as a vehicle for education and training formats of this kind, since it confirms the equivalence of qualifications and makes these transparent and comparable by means of competence descriptions.

In its Recommendation of March 2014, the Board of BIBB put forward a systematic classification of advanced vocational qualifications which describes career progressions within the vocational system and enables the mapping of advanced vocational training levels to the DQR. Certified IT Specialists are assigned to the first tier of advanced vocational training and to DQR Level 5. This gives the qualification a multiple bridging function which is being fleshed out in the “DQR Bridge 5” project: within vocational career-progression concepts it represents an important stepping-stone up to the Operated IT Professional qualification; at the same time it marks a transition point into higher education. From the viewpoint of the higher education institutions it lends itself as a bridge into vocational education, which can be crossed in both directions: as well as being an access route to higher education institutions it can also facilitate a pathway into compatible vocational training for those dropping out of degree courses.

In the case of the Certified IT Specialist advanced vocational qualification within the “DQR Bridge 5” project, this holds true even for individuals without an initial vocational qualification and is in keeping with the specific recruitment strategies in the IT sector, where lateral entry from other fields is always an option. The recommendations of the German Science Council on “Shaping the relationship of vocational and academic education” (Wissenschaftsrat 2014) are aimed at reinforcing hybrid education and training formats. A desk study of international research papers shows that DQR Level 5 is used in many countries as a platform for the integration of general education, vocational education and training and academic education (cf. WILBERS 2014). On this basis, new impulses can be created by means of interlocking vocational and higher education measures, both in the course of enlarging vocational education provision in the context of career-progression concepts as well as in academic continuing education, such as in the form of certificate courses – “low-threshold study programmes of a short-term nature which are certified but do not in themselves lead to an academic degree" (Wissenschaftsrat 2014, p. 87).

Apart from the “broad competence profiles” also proposed by the German Science Council to dependably meet the demand for skilled workers, the “DQR Bridge 5” project also envisages further-reaching innovative effects in the different educational and training sectors. Thus, curricular development requires a common understanding and a common language so as to be able to describe competences across educational sectors. Stakeholders from the vocational and higher education sectors are involved in the cooperative development of measures within the project. So far no provision is made for DQR Level 5 in the German higher education sector, i.e. there are no higher education qualifications below the Bachelor’s degree at Level 6. Therefore clarification is also necessary within the scope of the project as to whether and how education and training measures, or elements of them, which lead to an advanced vocational qualification at DQR Level 5 can be credited towards degree programmes and integrated in the system.

Design and extension of education and training offers across educational sectors

The design of education and training measures across educational sectors can combine learning outcome units from different sectors of education, e. g. modules from degree programme, units of learning outcomes from advanced vocational training and qualifications such as a recognised initial occupational qualification. In Figure 3, units of learning outcomes are shown as squares; qualifications are represented by the outlined grouped units of learning outcomes, and triangles stand for the add-ons which are explained further below.

In this respect, courses taught across educational sectors represent flexible structures. An individual assemblage of units of learning outcomes, qualifications and add-ons is denoted by the part of the diagram shaded in light blue. The individual provision represented by the light blue area contains a “complete” qualification from vocational education and training – the initial vocational qualification as an Information Technology Specialist (“Fachinformatiker”). A higher education qualification – a degree in Informatics at Bachelor's level – is only partially integrated in this case. Cross-cutting courses may combine higher education degree programmes or certificate courses, but also other modules; bridging courses, for example. Add-ons are additional elements which increase the attractiveness of the learning arrangement; for example, the prospect of taking over a skilled crafts enterprise.

Figure 3: Cross-cutting learning arrangement in the IT sector

Qualifications and units of learning outcomes are mapped to a specific level in the German national qualifications framework (DQR). For the DQR, as for the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the “principle of best fit” is applicable. A qualification is assigned to the level where it fits best on overall consideration of the competences. This also means that individual units of learning outcomes making up part of a qualification on one level may belong to a different level. These “exception modules” – shown in Figure 3 as a green square – are of strategic significance for the design of permeable structures. Credit for units of learning outcomes within a qualification, for example in a Bachelor’s degree programme or on the second tier of advanced vocational training (DQR Level 6), depends upon some level-referenced equivalence according to the general rules of credit transfer. Exception modules, however, also offer credit transfer options in cases where the DQR levels are at variance. Thus, a degree in Informatics (DQR Level 6) may include, as an exception module, a unit of learning outcome one level down at DQR Level 5: a programming course, for example. Equally the DQR Level 5 course may contain a higher-level exception module which is placed at the level of an Informatics degree.

In both cases, with due regard to the credit transfer principle of level-referenced equivalence, credit towards a qualification at a higher level is possible. Combining units of learning outcomes across educational sectors can give rise to flexible education and training courses which accommodate the requirements of a variety of groups and appeal to a variety of target groups. The aim of the project will now be to turn the “bridging concept” for the IT sector presented here into a workable reality. To this end, the next step will be to undertake so-called coverage analyses: on this basis vocational education and training experts together with the participating higher education institutions will describe the envisaged competence targets, devise units of learning outcomes and assemble these into education and training measures.

A flanking advisory concept will be developed for these courses, which will likewise be implemented across educational sectors. This is of interest particularly in the IT sector in order to make the advanced vocational qualification of Certified IT Specialist more attractive. It can be designed as a course for especially high-achieving young people or skilled workers, whilst at the same time offering prospects to individuals who leave university after completing a few modules but without gaining a degree.

Literature

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WILBERS, K.: Das Niveau 5 des Deutschen Qualifikationsrahmens (DQR) als Plattform für die Gestaltung bildungsübergreifender Arrangements. Nürnberg 2014 – URL: www.wirtschaftspaedagogik.de/services/ downloads/Ver%C3%B6ffentlichungen/Das-Niveau-5-des-DQR-als- Plattform (retrieved 31.03.2015)

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BARBARA HEMKES
Head of the “Quality, Sustainability, Permeability” section at BIBB

KARL WILBERS
Prof. Dr., Chair of Business Education and Human Resources Development, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

GERT ZINKE
Dr., Research Associate in the “Company and Individual Customer-related Service Occupations/Disabled Persons Committee” section at BIBB

 

Translation from the German original (published in BWP 3/2015): Deborah Shannon, Academic Text & Translation, Berlin