Initial and continuing VET partnerships to strengthen international skills mobility
By attending the German-Asian Forum on Vocational Education & Training taking place in Hamburg today, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Dr Harini Amarasuriya, and the Minister for Education and Skills of Buthan, Yeezang De Thapa, are showing a commitment to close cooperation between Asian and German training systems and markets.
From left to right: Almut Rößner (OAV), Dr Andreas Werner (iMOVE), Dr Arnd Nenstiel (OAV), Her Excellency Yeezang De Thapa (Minister of Education, Science and Technology of the Kingdom of Bhutan), Her Excellency Dr Harini Amarasuriya (Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka), Olaf Riedel (Ernst & Young - EY), Birgit Thomann (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training - BIBB)
Friedrich Hubert Esser, President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), explains:
"The German-Asian Forum on Vocational Education & Training will strengthen international collaboration in support of future-oriented, competitive and innovative VET and skilled worker recruitment. The sharing of knowledge, experience and best practice fosters joint strategies and solutions for the purpose of meeting the global challenges facing VET on a partnership basis. The private sector ensures the sustainable success of international skilled worker mobility with tailored qualifications and fairly structured recruitment conditions. iMOVE, an initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) based at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, is also committed to this."
iMOVE organises the German-Asian Forum on Vocational Education and Training together with the OAV – German Asia-Pacific Business Association. In panel discussions involving Asian and German participants from the areas of policymaking and the education sector and from German companies with an export focus, the current challenges, trends and innovative approaches to solutions will be discussed. These include needs-based initial and continuing vocational education and training (VET) in Asia and fair skilled worker migration for the German labour market, in each case with support from the German education sector. Other key themes include advancing digitalisation and the increasingly urgent need to deliver the relevant competencies. There will also be a focus on job training measures in environmental and climate disciplines such as renewable energy, water treatment and waste management.
The organisers' primary aim is to connect high-level decision makers from the Asian training sector with German providers of initial and continuing VET and with German companies needing skilled workers in and from Asia. Also taking part in the forum are ambassadors from Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, the Consul General from India as well as embassy officials from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Source: Press release, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, iMOVE, 28.03.2025