News about VET from Germany

James Calleja, the new head of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), demands a departure from the fixation on a university course as an ideal of education and professional training.

During a career guidance project week, an information event regarding the dual system of vocational education and training was hosted at the Markgrafen Realschule in Emmendingen. Thanks to the BBQ initiative (Vocational Education Qualification) four young vocational education and training ambassadors from the region were asked to tell the ninth grade students about their professional careers.

Vocational education and training continues to be an export hit in the crafts. Already in 2012, a delegation of trainers from the Brazilian SENAI Institute visited the education academy of the Chamber of Crafts Ulm in Friedrichshafen in order to gather information regarding quality standards in the German vocational education and training system and to learn about its main features. Now, the academy again welcomed trainers as guests.

Last autumn, more than 30 individuals entered into working life at the vocational education and training division at the Duisburg Werkstatt für Menschen mit Behinderung (Workshop for People with Disabilities).

In his exam for becoming a sales assistant, Martin Johannes Petersen achieved 99.0 points. The 24-year-old thus made it to top rank amongst all graduates of the winter examinations 2012/13 as well as of the summer examination 2013, which were awarded by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) for Munich and Upper Bavaria during a festive event on the Zugspitze.

Apart from trade fair presentations and trade missions abroad, iMOVE provides many useful international networking opportunities and occasions in Germany, mostly dedicated to contact with partners from one specific country or region.

"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.