Companies of all industries are urgently looking for new apprentices. According to a recent company survey conducted by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, more than 25 per cent of the companies in which apprentices are trained are planning to offer more training positions than in the previous year.
The budget of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research will rise in 2012 to a new record of 12.8 billion euros. In comparison to 2011 this is an increase of almost 10 per cent. This is part of a government bill which has been passed by the Federal Cabinet on July 5.
The vocational school of Northern Frisia in Husum has been awarded a prize for being an inclusion project "Vocational Training for Handicapped Persons – Ways to Inclusion by Joint Learning at Vocational Schools". This makes the educational institution in Husum one of the fist entries on the German inclusion map.
For the first time, a young woman has passed her plastics technician apprenticeship as best graduate of the year Germany-wide. Katharina Köpfler learned her profession at the company F. Morat & Co. GmbH in Eisenbach.
Despite successful modernisation of the vocational education and training (VET) system over the last decade, once again the academic discourse about the effectiveness and sustainability of VET has intensified.
As the number of school leavers continues to fall, companies will need to undertake greater endeavours to acquire trainees and secure a supply of young skilled workers. The quality of vocational education and training will play an increasingly significant role in future for companies seeking to present themselves to young people as attractive training providers.
Insofar as initial and continuing training is not statutorily regulated or subject to collective wage agreements, the German Labour Management Relations Act makes provision for works councils to be accorded a series of co-determination rights with regard to the structuring of company-based training measures.
Work processes in the printing and media sector are becoming increasingly complex. Most production processes have changed radically in the wake of the intermeshing of print and electronic media, growing digitisation, and new control technologies. Technologists are needed for running and controlling these processes.
At a meeting held in Bonn on 17 June 2010, the Board of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) - also referred to as the "Parliament of Vocational Education and Training" - unanimously adopted "Guidelines for improving the transition from school to work".
