German dual system as a model

During a visit to Eichstätt and Ingolstadt, which was organised by Michael Köck, head of the degree course for vocational college teachers at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, an Italian delegation was given the opportunity of gathering insights into the German vocational education and training system.

The guests from Lombardy and Veneto collected ideas for the conceptual work within their own vocational education and training institutions at home. Whereas in Germany, vocational education and training takes place predominantly within the so-called dual system, that is, both at the business and at the vocational college, occupational training in Italy takes place mostly at specialised vocational colleges.

Because of the youth unemployment rate being so low compared to other European countries, the German system frequently generates a lot of attention abroad. Therefore, the visitors from Italy wanted to learn more about the chronological, organisational and content-related co-ordination of the alternation between vocational college and business.

First, the delegation was provided with basic information regarding the system and didactics of vocational education and training; subsequently, the Italian teachers, amongst them three directors of institutions providing vocational education, visited the "Berufsschule 1" vocational college in Ingolstadt. There, they gained insights into vocational school training in the subject areas of food and food service industry.

The Italian pedagogues were impressed by the training rooms, including a fully equipped hairdresser's salon and a bakery shop floor. They pointed out that, in Italy, alignment of lessons on the basis of principles such as practice-orientation, experience-orientation and work process-orientation is impeded by an understanding of teaching that is strongly influenced by the scientific systematics of individual subjects. To correlate subject-related, mathematical and other content and to translate this into vocational lesson concepts and, in particular, learning concepts - this requires a high degree of professionalism on part of the teaching staff.

The group was given proof of this degree of professionalism the very next day at the Berufsschule Eichstätt vocational college, when Andreas Weis, head of the wood technology department, and the specialist subject teachers Josef Herrle and Alexander Weber demonstrated how the budding carpenters and joiners can build up their expertise, methodological and social competences step by step. In a manner similar to Germany, the vocational education institutions in Italy likewise teach towards higher education degrees.

The gathering of information on one of the educational options that may follow after the initial dual vocational education and training programme was also offered. At the master craftsmen college for joiners and carpenters in Munich, the delegation from Italy got acquainted with the organisation and vocational education and training at an innovative specialist vocational college.

The group was able to participate in the lessons of a master class in the subject of design and construction and saw how creativity in the design stage, technology-supported planning and implementation in the machining process were correlated. Not only on part of the Italian experts, this helped to reinforce the impression of the fact that in Germany the vocational education and training system prepares young people in a professional, didactically and methodologically contemporary way for their future working life and that they need not fear comparison with academic professions when it comes to performance and motivation.