The German Chancellor promotes shortened vocational education and training periods for university drop-outs. Together with Federal Education Minister Wanka, she acquainted herself with the successful vocational education and training project 'Switch' at a company in Aachen. It is set to be implemented throughout Germany.
More than half of all school graduates, that is, 522,000 young people started an apprenticeship in the dual system in 2014. The situation in the apprenticeship market has slightly improved. Yet Ministers Wanka and Nahles say that more young people have to be placed in apprenticeships faster.
Dual study courses were created as a form of educational provision offering both an academic and a practical vocational qualification. The coupling of competence acquisition in both higher education and practical company-based contexts is aimed at supporting learning transfer and hence achieving a benefit over purely academic or purely hands-on forms of initial vocational training. There is, however, a lack of clear criteria for describing this duality.
Ministers from the European Union (EU) Member States, candidate countries, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein have endorsed the new medium-term deliverables for vocational education and training (VET), known as the Riga conclusions.
As early as last year, the 7th "National Integration Summit" decided to provide supervision for 10,000 apprenticeship placements. The goal: to help young people with difficulties in completing a vocational education and training course in the regular manner or in finding an apprenticeship placement in the first place.
The German Education Center Co., Ltd. has been opened in Beijing. It will offer programmes in the fields of "Environment", "Logistics and Transport", "Automobiles" and "Healthcare". The project is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
