News about VET from Germany

The Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Dr Philipp Rösler, met leading representatives from associations and enterprises at the Internationale Handwerksmesse crafts trade fair in Munich for the dialogue on growth "Innovationsorientiertes Handwerk" (Innovation-oriented Crafts).

The first decisions have been made: With the projects "Look-and-Listen-Map" and "Die Trickser: Taugst du zum Betrüger?" (The Tricksters: Are you fit for being a cheat?) a student from Paderborn University and the company GenoTec GmbH respectively are awarded this year's German E-learning innovation and young talent award D-ELINA in the respective categories "Campus" and "Professional".

iMOVE presented its services at the IFAT Entsorga, the world's leading trade fair for the water, sewage, waste and raw materials management and also took part in this year's KUBRI, the first Euro-Arab Career and Education Fair, both taking place in Munich in May 2012.

No degree without continuity – this is said to be one of the strengths of the educational system in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. Whenever the performance capability of the school system was subject to debate in the past years, the respective education ministers drew attention to the vocational schools.

As of late, the pupils at the Willy Brandt Vocational College in Duisburg-Rheinhausen are taught life skills and how to plan their lives. The reason for this is that pupils also face the problem of resignation after many setbacks, for instance, when looking for a vocational training placement.

The vocational training opportunities for young people have once again improved over the past year. During a meeting in Berlin in march, Martin Wansleben, Chief Executive Director of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), expressed his satisfaction with what was achieved by the Vocational Training Pact.

The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and the Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks (ZDH, German Confederation of Skilled Crafts) regard inter-company vocational training in the crafts (ÜLU) to be an important element in safeguarding the skilled labour supply in Germany.

Experts from the fields of politics, science and business met for the German-Russian Vocational Training Conference entitled "Modern Vocational Training: Challenges and Perspectives for Business and Society" from 29 to 30 March in Kaluga.

Dual study courses experience a boom. According to numbers published by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), the number of dual study courses offered by enterprises in 2011 increased by 46 per cent to over 40,000.