The number of businesses providing placements for dual study courses in cooperation with a university or university of cooperative education has grown rapidly. Compared to the previous year, 2011 saw an increase of about 46 per cent to more than 40,000 such propositions from enterprises, thereby providing dual study course positions for over 61,000 students.
This is the result of an evaluation of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training's (BIBB) "AusbildungPlus" database. The growth with regard to the dual study courses on offer is equally steady. Their number has increased by about 20 per cent to 929, while an increase of more than 12 per cent was recorded already in the previous year. According to BIBB President Friedrich Hubert Esser, this development impressively substantiates the extent to which the industry has come to perceive the dual study system as an opportunity for training highly qualified skilled labour to meet their own requirements. "The numbers illustrate how much stronger the competition for top talents has become. Enterprises making such attractive training propositions have a significant competitive advantage."
Dual study courses combine practical training within a company and the theoretical education at a university (of applied sciences) or at a university of cooperative education, so that at best graduates obtain two qualifications: A vocational and an academic qualification. At any rate, they complete a particularly innovative, attractive and practice-related form of study providing them with a multitude of advantages. These include, for instance, the direct transfer between theory and practice and the support on part of the employer, often in the form of apprenticeship pay or by covering the university fees.
"AusbildungPlus" (Vocational Education Plus) is a BIBB project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Its centrepiece is a database providing Germany-wide information regarding dual study courses and additional qualifications within the dual vocational education system. Interested young people can search the database for suitable propositions free of charge. Educational providers, for example, businesses, universities (of applied sciences) or universities of cooperative education, can likewise publish their training and study propositions free of charge.