News about VET from Germany

The reform plans, officially presented by Hamburg's Schools Secretary, Ties Rabe (SPD), will have a direct impact on a total of 32 of the 44 vocational colleges in the city and their combined number of 54,700 students.

In future, educational attainments and occupational qualifications earned in Germany will be made more comparable across Europe. The German federal government and the German federal states agreed on this by signing a joint decision on the German Qualifications Framework.

The drop in numbers of VET beginners in the transitional phase from school to vocational training has continued in 2012. This applies to the national average as well as to most of the 16 Länder (federal states).

The iMOVE Provider database includes more than 200 corporate profiles of German companies in the education sector. From now on, interested parties can not only select potential partners with concrete training measures on offer, but also consulting firms which focus on thoroughly informing its clients about appropriate training strategies and how to implement them.

The Germans are an inquisitive nation – at least as far as professional continuing education is concerned. The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research has kept count for 2012: in the past year in Germany, a record number of people was registered to have completed a continuing education course.

Dual higher education study remains on a path of growth as the high degree of interest shown in this special form of training by young people, companies and Universities of Applied Sciences/other institutes of higher education continues unabated.

According to a report by the European Commission regarding the working conditions of teachers and school leaders in 32 countries, introductory programmes for the individual support and counselling of new teachers by now have become mandatory in 15 EU Member States as well as in Croatia and Turkey.

Part-time initial vocational training has been legally enshrined in Germany's Vocational Training Act since 2005. But apparently it is still not familiar enough to many companies and young adults - a conclusion suggested by the low number of newly concluded part-time training contracts.

Around 12 per cent of trainees do not gain a vocational certificate the first time they undertake a dual-system apprenticeship. Either they drop out before the final examination or they fail to pass it after all permitted attempts.