Master of trade recognised worldwide as a seal of quality
The demand for students and graduates in electronics and IT can be met at present, mainly thanks to the continual stream of foreign students entering higher education in Germany. But Lothar Hellmann, President of the ZVEH (Germany's umbrella organisation for electronic and IT trades) sees the situation regarding new apprentices in quite a different light.
[ZVEH: Zentralverband der Deutschen Elektro- und Informationstechnischen Handwerke, German Electro-technology Association and Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association]
Elektroniknet: Mr. Hellmann, students continue to beat a path to higher education. How should vocational training react to this continuing trend towards academia instead of trades?
Lothar Hellmann: incentives need to be created so that a degree course is not seen as the only way forward. The proportion of young people with school leaving certificates who set their sights on a degree has recently broken the 50 per cent barrier. We have a responsibility to ensure that potential trainees become more aware of the appeal of the e-trades, so that they can consider a career in trades as a rewarding alternative to higher education.
Elektroniknet: What role does internationalisation and digitalisation of the working environment play for vocational education and training?
Hellmann: The training ordinance has to be updated on a regular basis in order to adapt to these kinds of global trends. In fact, such an update has just been carried out, since occupational profiles have undergone complex change due to those trends.
Elektroniknet: What impact will increasing heterogeneity among potential trainees (compare immigrants, refugees and higher education drop-outs) have on the future of dual vocational training?
Hellmann: Our goal has to be to provide everyone with the opportunity to undertake dual vocational training and have access to the career options it offers. Policymakers have to step up to the plate here: they have to create opportunities across the board, for example, for immigrants to acquire the language skills they need to become better trained.
On the ground, an "assisted Training" model is already being used: people with learning difficulties or physical disabilities are supported by an assistant, who helps them to meet the challenges they face.
ZVEH are committed to increasing the opportunities to move between academic studies and vocational education and training. For ZVEH this means in both directions: access courses for degree level and providing a "safety net" for students who drop out of higher education, in order to have more qualified e-trade workers.
Elektroniknet: How successful is this proving to be?
Hellmann: We need a sufficient number of well-equipped, skilled workers for the challenges posed by the Energiewende or energy transition, the changeover to intelligent buildings and advanced digitalisation; this is especially important in order to ensure the quality of the work done remains high. What's more, the requirements for e-trade vocational profiles and the way this kind of work is viewed have changed a great deal over recent years. We are now talking about some highly technical occupations.
As a general rule, students dropping out of university make for high quality trainees. It is often the case that after just a couple of semesters, they realise that their talents are more suited to practical applications than theory. We need to open up new perspective for them: through dual training, they can make a trade into a career, for example through further training to become a master of trade, which gives them the option of setting up their own business at a later stage. As well as self-employment, e-trades offer great opportunities for advanced training, so that skilled workers can also take on more responsibility while working for someone else.
It's encouraging to see that the proportion of e-trade trainees qualified to study at higher education level has increased from under four per cent in 2003 to almost ten per cent, so it has more than doubled.
Elektroniknet: What do you consider to be the hot topics for discussion in training policy right now?
Hellmann: We should not be too quick to give up well-established and well-proven qualifications such as the master of trades. It is recognised as a seal of quality worldwide. I remember the same debate over the "Diplom-Ingenieur" engineering qualification. This qualification also enjoyed international recognition, and introducing an English alternative has effectively watered down what was a successful brand.
Elektroniknet: What role do dual studies, vocational education and training and bachelor degrees combined play for ZVEH?
Hellmann: For highly qualified people in particular, this presents an excellent opportunity to lay the foundation for a career in e-trades. After all, it presents a parallel route to dual training – a combination of a traineeship and vocational school – which has proved its worth and leads to excellent results.