The journal reports on research findings and practical experience with issues from vocational education and training, thus fostering an exchange between education research, day-to-day education practice and education policy.
Current issue
Company-based training and competency development (BWP 1/2025)
Companies are currently facing major challenges with regard to the initial and continuing VET of skilled workers. Company-based training places are increasingly remaining vacant while courses of higher education study also leading to a vocational qualification are gaining in significance instead. Large numbers of experienced skilled workers will leave working life over the next few years, and a great deal of professional expertise will depart with them. At the same time, technological and ecological change in the economy and within society (digitalisation, artificial intelligence and the green economy) is sure to create a high degree of momentum.
How will companies react to these challenges? What importance do they attach to investments in the vocational training and competency development of their employees? What strategies are they pursuing in this respect, and which factors influence their decisions? These questions form the main focus of this issue of BWP.
A bundle of measures is being discussed in a bid to counter skilled worker shortages. This article uses data from the IAB Establishment Panel to investigate the degree of importance accorded by companies to individual strategies aimed at meeting the need for qualified staff. Particular attention is directed at initial and continuing VET and at the question of which companies are particularly likely to use the opportunities this affords to ensure availability of a skilled workforce.
The labour market, which is already tight anyway, is characterised by a rising number of unfilled training places. In order to counter these developments, companies are adopting new routes to acquire and retain trainees. The labour market policy support instruments addressing this area particularly include assisted training, a funding vehicle for disadvantaged young people. Support services are directed at companies as well as at the young people themselves. This article investigates how companies benefit from reduced pressure on their time and staff and looks at the extent to which such assistance contributes to the stabilisation and improvement of the training relationship.
This article examines the prevalence of systematic competence management in German companies and investigates whether it influences the participation of low-skilled employees in non-formal continuing vocational education and training (CVET). Analyses of the BIBB Training Panel show that highly systematised forms of competence management are established in around a quarter of large companies and that these contribute to an increase in employees’ participation in CVET, whereby highly systematised competence management has a more positive effect for high-skilled employees.
Company-based training is of significance in two regards. As well as serving as an important instrument enabling companies to cover their skill demand, it also makes a contribution towards ensuring staff employability. Participation in continuing vocational education and training (CVET) is, however, unevenly distributed. A role is also played by factors at the operational and institutional level. This article uses representative data from the BIBB Establishment Panel on Training and Competence Development (BIBB Training Panel) to investigate whether CVET agreements increase participation in such training by employees and whether this applies equally to all employee groups.
This article uses data from the 2023 BIBB Training Panel to investigate whether there is a correlation between company continuing training investments and the current social and ecological transformation. The results show that there is a link between company commitment in the area of sustainability and investments in the continuing training of employees, even if account is taken of company digitalisation processes.
Fritsch GmbH in Steinwenden was established as an electrical company in 1949. Today it employs skilled workers in four different main trades and also has a separate commercial division. Ownership of the family-run company has now passed to the third generation. Initial and continuing VET for its own skilled workforce has always been a key focus. In this interview, Julia Hunsicker speaks about the routes via which the company acquires and trains its trainees and staff and about how it is overcoming the challenges emerging in the wake of the digital, social and ecological transformation. She also particularly directs her attention to the specific areas of potential at a small company.
This article provides an insight into the changing competency requirements in the workplace as a result of the digital transformation. It is becoming apparent that transformative and personal competencies are also in demand alongside digital competencies. The article presents challenges and examples of the imparting of best practice within the scope of company-based continuing VET.
There has been an increase in the number of persons not in possession of a recognised vocational qualification. Many of these have relevant occupational experience or have acquired qualifications abroad. However, in the absence of formal certificates, it is often difficult to use such qualifications on the labour market. This article compares the new assessment procedure set out in the Vocational Education and Training Validation and Digitalisation Act (BVaDiG) with two established recognition procedures: the procedure for the admission of external candidates to the regular final examination and the recognition procedure pursuant to the Professional Qualifications Assessment Act (BQFG).
Numerous company-based training places remain vacant. Very little attention has thus far been accorded to premature contract dissolutions as a possible cause of this. The present article uses data from the BIBB Establishment Panel on Training and Competence Development to address this gap.
In order to counter the shortage of skilled workers in the field of electrical engineering, the Aachen University of Applied Sciences has joined forces with the relevant chambers to develop a new type of study programme. This article describes the orientation and education and training provision on offer. Participants are able to gain practical experiences at a company providing training whilst also receiving an initial insight into higher education study. This enables them to arrive at a decision regarding the future education and training pathway they wish to pursue.
The Federal Act on Higher Vocational Education and Training (HBB) entered into force in May 2024. It marks the end of a long discussion process whilst at the same time heralding the establishment of a new educational segment in Austria. This article describes the background details and key provisions of the law and indicates the expectations associated with it.
The cherry blossoms featured on the homepage of the University Conference on Vocational Education and Training signalise that spring will be directly on its way when expert representatives from the field of vocational and business education convene for the event in Paderborn from 17 to 19 March 2025. But spring will not be the only attraction luring the participants to Paderborn. A packed and highly topical general programme promises an opportunity to engage in inspiring professional networking. This interview with Professor Dietmar Heisler covers the main focuses and highlights of the event.
The aim of a cabinet resolution submitted in September 2024 for the introduction of a Nursing Assistant Act is the standardisation under federal law of assistant and auxiliary occupations in nursing which were previously governed by federal state law. This article highlights the origins of the Nursing Assistant Act and explains its key parameters and the challenges associated with implementation.
No doctor’s surgery is able to do without them. Medical assistants perform some of the most varied tasks in any of the medical professions. They look after patients and assist with examinations, treatments and operational organisation. Social competencies are also becoming increasingly relevant. This occupational description describes why this is the case and provides current training figures.
The third regular Board Meeting took place under chairmanship of Elke Hannack, representative of the employees. The main content focuses were the current situation on the training places market in 2024, the Report “Education in Germany in 2024” and the topic of support for gifted pupils in vocational education and training.
