Bade: "Greater innovation in vocational education and training"

The jury of the nationwide innovation competition "InnoVET" has proposed that a project from the Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Stade Chamber of Crafts and Trades receive financial support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The "LBT Forward" agricultural engineering project is a joint project with the German Agricultural Engineering Association [Landbautechnik Bundesverband] and other partners. The project aims to establish a new career pathway system in the agricultural and construction machinery skilled trades in order to increase the attractiveness of this occupation and to recruit the next, desperately needed generation of skilled workers. The jury's decision means that, as one of 17 projects, the chamber of crafts and trades project has reached the final stage of the federal competition "Shaping the future – innovations for excellent vocational education and training (InnoVET)", and has the prospect of financial support for a period of four years.

The goal of the competition is to make vocational education and training more attractive, more effective and innovative. "We want to use this to make sure that, after the pandemic, we are also in a good place to compete for the very best people internationally," commented Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek. Chamber President, Detlef Bade, welcomed the jury's decision: "Vocational education and training is the foundation of the skilled trades. For this to remain the case, we need greater innovation in vocational education and training." He added that agricultural and construction machinery technology was one of the most digitalised sectors of the economy and that the demands placed on employees are increasing at an ever-faster rate. "The demand for the next generation of skilled workers in the sector is therefore high," explains Bade.

The aim of the LBT Forward project is to use occupational monitoring over the course of the technological transformation to identify new training needs for skilled workers and managers in agricultural engineering more quickly, and to meet these requirements by means of adapted initial and advanced education and training content. The goal is to stimulate technological and economic development in the agricultural engineering sector, to support the digital transformation in SMEs, to ensure their long-term survival, and to provide a boost to rural areas. The intention is to be able to transfer the career pathway concepts and the occupational monitoring as a model to other sectors in the skilled trades. The German Agricultural Engineering Association is responsible for project management. Five project partners are involved, including the Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Stade Chamber of Crafts and Trades with the commercial vehicle and agricultural machinery engineering centre of excellence in Lüneburg, as well as ten cooperation partners from the skilled trades, commerce, education and training, manufacturers, and higher education.

Background

The innovation competition "InnoVET" is part of the federal government’s national continuing education strategy. At the start of 2019, the BMBF called on VET stakeholders to develop ideas for innovative vocational training and continuing education, and to submit an application for funding to the "InnoVET" innovation competition.

176 project ideas were received in the concept phase. From these, the jury - comprising ten VET experts - initially selected the 30 most promising ideas. From August 2019, the projects selected then had six months to develop their ideas into a comprehensive funding application for the trial and implementation phase.

The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), tasked by the BMBF with running InnoVET, is now coordinating further with the projects and inviting them to application interviews.