News about VET from Germany

Girls train to become hairdressers, boys to become automotive mechatronics engineers: watering down such role allocations, that is the aim of the Girls' Day and, by now, also of the Boys' Day. Once a year, these "Future Days" provide pupils in fifth grade or above the opportunity to get a taste of uncharacteristic occupations – this year on the 25th of April.

A report by the business consultancy McKinsey has compared the vocational education systems in an international study and awards best marks to the German system.

The Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Gudrun Kopp, has awarded the winners of the BMZ innovation competition for vocational education and training projects in developing countries.

Hans Heinrich Driftmann, President of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), and Kristina Schröder, German Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, specially awarded the best apprenticeship graduates in chamber of industry and commerce occupations last December.

In future, vocational schools will likewise allow young people with and without disabilities to study jointly. In Bavaria, this is a further step towards implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The German trade unions and the dual system of Vocational Education & Training (VET) have a strong correlation, since vocational education and training also leads to better salaries and decent working conditions. The unions are therefore strong stakeholders and supporters of the dual mode of VET as designed in Germany.

A new online platform for aprentices has been implemented. On this learning platform, the apprentices can work through interactive, multi-media learning programmes on the topics of electrical engineering, control engineering and basics of technical mathematics.

The Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, the Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs and the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) have launched the new service provision available on the skilled labour offensive internet portals www.make-it-in-germany.com and www.fachkräfte-offensive.de.

More than one third of the companies in Germany which provide training, just under 470,000 in number, are now experiencing major difficulties in filling their training places.