Dual system location advantage

Germany has performed very well in international comparisons for many years. This is also due to the dual education and training system. Even the OECD has now acknowledged this.

Why has Germany performed very well in international comparisons for many years? Even the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is forced to admit that this is largely due to our dual system of vocational education and training.

For many years the OECD education report has criticized us for not having enough students and pupils with higher level school leaving certificates in our country. However this was often a case of trying to compare apples with pears. A degree is often required in other countries for many occupations which we successfully deliver in the dual system.

When presenting the current education report, Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education at the OECD, noted that the overriding strength of the German education and training system was the seamless transition from training into professional life. He described vocational education and training in Germany as exemplary on an international level and emphasized that, due to the dual system, the vast majority of the population in Germany had an intermediate level school leaving certificate. So everything's fine?

Well, this is no reason to rest on our laurels. It cannot be emphasised often enough, particularly in the debate surrounding the integration of refugees in the job market, that this can only be achieved via regular vocational education and training and not through the delivery of part qualifications. It becomes a problem in the long run if more than one tenth of people aged 25 to 34 do not have a vocational qualification or higher level school leaving certificate.

It must also be noted, however, that a disproportionate number of people from a migration background are included in this. This is not due to a lack of provision for this target group, but is in part due to their lack of willingness to begin making the successful step into the job market via vocational education and training. Currently the opportunities here are almost better than ever due to the positive economic situation and the demand for skilled workers.

This might also be an opportunity therefore to consider whether the German education and training system with its federal ramifications is set up in the right way and whether it is financed according to need. A question mark could be added to the latter. This is because the amounts paid into vocational education and training is peanuts when you consider the billions invested by the state in universities.

Following the Higher Education Pact, a financially-backed Vocational Education and Training Pact should have been introduced long ago. Acknowledgements of equivalence between academic and vocational education and training otherwise remain empty promises.