Modernising the Romanian education system
Christiani Technical Institute for Vocational Training • Romanian teachers gain insights into German dual vocational education and training (VET) system
For 80 years, the Christiani Technical Institute for Vocational Training has been synonymous with high-quality and practice-relevant vocational training and continuing education. Christiani is a committed and competent partner in all phases of technical vocational education, from school, over vocational training and continuing education, to university. With its comprehensive know-how and continuously growing range of services, Christiani has developed into a full-range supplier. In addition to traditional text books and learning materials, its portfolio includes also interactive media, project work and equipment for training facilities as well as consultancy for and implementation of training projects.
Christiani has been active in the iMOVE network for over ten years and, in roughly the same period, has expanded its international business, which currently comprises more than 60 countries. Christiani has been structuring its international business in a targeted manner especially in the past three years, since the German education system increasingly meets with international interest and the educational material from Germany is in high demand.
In 2013 and 2014 alone, Christiani equipped schools, universities and training centres in Brazil, China, Iraq, Mexico, Mongolia, Peru and Tunisia as well as at numerous sites within Europe with training systems. In the context of these projects, Christiani created corresponding training materials and carried out additional train-the-trainer courses. The in-house development and production of these materials allow for a high degree of flexibility, in particular in adapting an existing concept to the conditions and needs in the target regions.
Since September 2010, Christiani has been the foreign partner involved in the implementation of three EU education projects in Romania. A total of 2,000 Romanian teachers have received training in the fields of mechatronics, automotive engineering and project work. The training provision used modern training methods, both theoretical and practical, that are known for their successful implementation in the German vocational education and training system. Christiani's project contribution comprised training units in Germany (exchange of best practices) and training material as well as equipment for training rooms. To this end, a wide range of Christiani's training documents and learning software were translated into the Romanian language.
The projects were funded from out of the European Social Fund. In the context of the on-going modernisation of the Romanian education system, the focus was on improving the training provision for teachers at technical schools and schools of general education in Romania. For the most part, the teachers came from technical secondary schools (upper secondary) selected from various regions in Romania. The project partners included the Technical University Pitesti, the Technical University Cluj Napoca as well as the company S.C. TERA IMPEX S.R.L., Christiani's Romanian distribution partner of many years.
The continuing education seminars focused on the communication of didactic tools designed to acquaint the course participants with action-based learning and teaching methods. This specifically applied to seminars conducted in the context of the mechatronics project. For the projects in the fields of automotive engineering and project work, Christiani organised workshops including informal information exchange and corresponding company visits. In addition, all course participants expressed great interest in gaining insights into the German dual system of vocational education and training.
Christiani regularly supervised groups of 20 to 40 people in the period from March 2011 to July 2012. The training courses were carried out in co-operation with the Hohentwiel Gewerbeschule Singen vocational school, the training academy of the Chamber of Crafts in Konstanz, and the GARP Bildungszentrum educational centre in Plochingen.
Information
This sucess story was first published in the iMOVE publication Developing Skills for Employability with German Partners • 8 Success Stories from Central and Eastern European Countries and the CIS. The brochure was published in 2014.
