News about VET from Germany

"The conciliation between youth unemployment in the Alsace and the increasing skilled labour shortage in Baden-Württemberg presents a great opportunity for cross-border co-operation in the Upper Rhine region", said Peter Friedrich, Minister for the Bundesrat, Europe and International Affairs, in Offenburg during a panel discussion on transnational vocational education and training in the Upper Rhine region.

Participation, trends and topics of continuing education as well as favoured methods of learning in adulthood: these are some of the subject areas that are covered in the report "Weiterbildungsverhalten in Deutschland" (Continuing education behaviour in Germany).

The nationwide best Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) apprentices of the current examination class were distinguished by Eric Schweitzer, President of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), and by Günther Oettinger, EU Commissioner for Energy.

The German government successively implements various measures to facilitate access to the German employment market for qualified professionals from abroad. Already, the OECD deems the German immigration procedure as one of the least bureaucratic and most efficient worldwide.

The focus was on vocational education and training in Germany during the first East Württemberg Economic Talk at the Hammerschmiede in Königsbronn. The speaker was Dr Hans-Peter Klös, Managing Director of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW).

There are some 340 different occupations requiring vocational education and training, but boys still preferably want to be automotive mechatronics engineers and girls retail saleswomen. In the estimation of Ulrike Friedrich, vocational education and training expert at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), this is due also to the young people's need for security.

In co-operation with the Pflegeteam Wentland nursing care enterprise in Rheinbach, the Federal Employment Agency Bonn/Rhein-Sieg hosted a press conference in the context of the action week "Geriatric Nursing" in late October. The aim was to raise awareness for the continuing education and promotion opportunities in the nursing care professions and to provide information regarding occupational retraining and qualification programmes.

In future, the Swedish police force will employ virtual reality training systems to train its officers in the use of remote-controlled vehicles for the investigation and removal of dangerous objects. The systems were recently delivered by szenaris GmbH, a German company specialising in innovative e-learning applications.

Demographic change, the threat of skilled labour shortage and prolongation of working lifetime: vocational education becomes more and more important. Already, professional development training is increasingly an alternative to university entrance qualification and university degree courses.