Julian Nida-Rümelin fears for the future and quality both of the dual system vocational and academic education in Germany.
The Arbeitskreis (AK) Schule-Wirtschaft (Working Group School-Economy) had invited Julian Nida-Rümelin, former Federal Minister for Culture and Media under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, to the Festhalle Ebingen, where he – quite provocatively – presented his theory of the German 'academisation craze'.
Nicolai Wiedmann, Chairman of the AK Schule-Wirtschaft, started the event by explaining what this was all about: more and more higher education qualifications are being attained in Germany – at the cost of the dual system of vocational education and training at businesses. In 2015, the number of first-time students exceeded the number of apprentices for the first time in Germany and the demographic development aggravates the problem, he said. "Many businesses soon will no longer be able to find apprentices, skilled trades workers and journeymen will be in short supply."
Following Wiedmann, Anton Reger, First Mayor of Albstadt, welcomed the guest from Munich. Then Julian Nida-Rümelin began to speak. What is that, the 'academisation craze'? "Delusional" is what the former minister calls the devaluation of non-academic qualifications and occupations, the subtle relocation of vocational courses of education to the universities and the panic that without a university entrance qualification and degree course socio-economic decline threatens.
What is the basis of these notions? OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) statistics, which, according to Nida-Rümelin, are simply wrong. For instance, he said, the OECD spreads the myth that the number of people with academic education is significantly higher in the United States. Yet in only four semesters the American city colleges educate their students at best superficially and without reference to either research or practice. After that, they are regarded as academics in name, but in fact their education standard is far below that of their German contemporaries who have completed an apprenticeship in the dual system of vocational education and training.
Second delusion: that the gross domestic product increases with the percentage of academics. Statistics, said Nida-Rümelin, prove the opposite. In 2011, the youth unemployment rate was higher in the countries with the higher rate of academics, for example, about twice as high in the United Kingdom than in Germany. Of course, compared to Germany and Austria, the United Kingdom is already as good as deindustrialised; the manufacturing industry and small and medium-sized enterprises are of distinctly lesser relevance – do we really want to also go this way here in this country?
So far in Germany, about 40 per cent of young people enrolled in a degree course, 60 per cent started an apprenticeship. Now this ratio threatens to be reversed. This trend is accompanied by the political insistence to reduce the number of university drop-outs. This, he said, increases the pressure on universities to lower their standards – the academisation craze thus constitutes a threat not only for dual system vocational education, but also for academic education.
Is there a way out? Nida-Rümelin recommends avoiding sector-specific constrictions and premature commitment at schools of general education and to let children learn longer together. Cognitive competences, he said, are important, but not everything. Creative, technical, commercial, manual and social skills must not be disregarded. "Good luck with the astronomers who are to substitute the missing electricians!"
A higher percentage of general education and indeed also of scientific orientation would be desirable for the field of vocational education and training – and for academic education the maintaining of its standards. The most important aspect, however, is a change of thinking within society. It is a question of respect and regard for each other, of equal appreciation of academic and non-academic occupations, said Nida-Rümelin.