Ajlend Hamzagic sits at a workbench in the production hall of GSI SLV Duisburg, a vocational training workshop. The 27-year old is completing an apprenticeship as a qualified metal engineer here. An occupation that is entirely new in this form. It was established only a year ago, after the industry found there was a demand gap.
On 9 January 2015, the Indian Ministry of Tourism and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy met for the 7th Indo-German Joint Working Group on Tourism. The meeting took place in New Delhi, India.
Bricklayers have to be able to do more than lay one brick on another. The profession has changed, is highly specialised these days and, at the same time, very diverse. The job prospects are good in these times of skilled labour shortage.
When the telephone rings, Cihan Sevim picks up the receiver and greets the customer. Very professional, like a real bank advisor. Yet Cihan Sevim has been a Commerzbank apprentice for only a year. He is not yet allowed to conduct consultations with customers on his own, but here at the branch the 21-year old learns the practical knowledge he needs for his future occupation.
The necessity of the college degree is beginning to be questioned. With youth unemployment in Europe at 24 per cent in 2013 and thousands of graduates coming out of university every year without jobs to go into, there is an increasing feeling that there is a missing link somewhere between education and employment.
Technological development has long since engulfed also the field of modern two-wheeled vehicle technology. The sales of bicycles with an electric motor are rapidly increasing; the so-called e-bikes and pedelecs are very much in vogue. The share of electronic systems in motorcycles likewise steadily increases. The manufacturing, trading and crafts businesses working with this kind of vehicle technology urgently need skilled staff with corresponding qualifications.
There is little money for artistic training in Tunisia; the country has neither sufficient teachers nor schools. This is about to change. An academy for dance in Dresden co-operates with the North African country.
The new regulation reflects the modern demands placed on the occupation. With their work, galvanisers protect assets worth billions from corrosion. Innovation is one of their strengths. This must be reflected also in the master craftsman examination of the galvanising trade.
The Professional and Vocational Qualifications Assessment Law (BQFG) also permits competences acquired by informal and non-formal means to be taken into account in checking the equivalence of a foreign professional or vocational qualification with a German professional or vocational qualification.