Design options for the dual organisation of vocational training

The German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut) was also involved in the expert report. The sfs report focuses on findings on selected framework conditions of vocational education and training (Europe; transitions and developments in work design), while the ITB report identifies design options for vocational education policy. First, the current discussion on German vocational education and training is presented in its relevant positions, and central dimensions and problems are characterised. It becomes clear that two fundamental patterns of argumentation can currently be distinguished in the discussion on the further development of vocational education and training: modularisation and academisation.

1. Modularisation is demanded with reference to the diversity of the needs of learners and of the providers of vocational learning (companies, schools, training providers). It is argued that this diversity can only be accommodated through flexible timing and the structuring of the content of individual training programmes. “Academisation”, on the other hand, sees the challenges in a “knowledge society and knowledge economy” that can only be met through school- and science-oriented training programmes. Taking into account various considerations and empirical findings, the report supplements both strategies with a vocational education policy strategy oriented towards a “company-based occupational type of education” and towards gainful employment as the goal of vocational training.

2. If the alternatives were limited to “modularisation” and “academisation”, the design of the processes of learning, teaching and assessment would be made dependent on this differentiation alone. We have sought and examined a third alternative. Responsibility for the respective form of competence development should not be restricted to individuals or companies alone, but should be assumed jointly by the social partners. The company-based occupational type of education seems best suited to this. However, it does not yet offer sufficiently elaborated principles according to which an education system as a whole can be designed. Such an education system would have to be oriented towards – European – core occupations and build on the principle of social integration at the level of general education schools. This gives rise to two challenges:

a) the consistent design of duality as a principle of vocational learning and b) permeability of vocational education programmes towards general education. These three strategies are examined on the basis of various empirical findings on the relationship between education and the labour market and on vocational competence development, and their possible consequences are illustrated. At the same time, however, the differences between the so-called dual system as the real type of vocational education and training in Germany and the ideal type of the company-based occupational type of education are also illustrated. Some findings are briefly reproduced below. The existence of vocational education and training as an attractive and quantitatively strong option within the education system increases the probability that pupils will acquire a vocational qualification before entering working life. Moreover, it can be shown that dual vocational training – i.e. training that is integrated with the labour market and has a formative effect – is an effective means for graduates to limit periods of unemployment among young people and thus also to reduce youth unemployment overall. However, in future it will be important to analyse the quality of the pathways and transitions more precisely. Indicators on the transition sequences taking place support the argument of the performance of dual vocational training structures in international comparison. For the company-based occupational type of education, this means first of all maintaining the correspondence between education and the labour market, since this seems in principle suitable for enabling a rapid and meaningful transition from school to the world of work. However, the very contrasting examples of Denmark and Ireland show how broad the spectrum of successful design of transition sequences can be. Challenges faced by countries with a high proportion of university graduates and a low regard for vocational education point to the importance of experience-based learning in the work process and to “matching” problems that could arise from a concentration on an academic type of education. In our view, duality is not an exclusive characteristic of vocational training in dual systems, but a general feature of learning processes within educational and employment biographies that lead to occupational capability. If learning processes leading to vocational qualifications are viewed in such a comprehensive way, it also becomes clear where the limits of modularisation lie, or how difficult it is to divide learning processes into small, independent learning units.

From a vocational education perspective, the question of professionally competent work and its structures arises above all with regard to the knowledge required in the corresponding work processes. The frequently made polarised differentiation between “simple” and “more complex” work activity does not do justice to the various design questions that arise from a vocational education perspective. On the basis of various analyses carried out within the framework of vocational research studies, it appears possible to identify differences with regard to essential dimensions of professionally competent work. Such a horizontal differentiation concerning the design of occupations and vocational training has so far hardly been taken into account in the discussion on dual vocational education and training. Three categories of work structures are identified:

• technology- and knowledge-based work structures,
• process-related work structures and
• task-related work structures.

These point to different types of professionally competent work. This means that the design of the processes of learning, teaching and assessment can be made dependent on this differentiation and set against a partly misleading vertical differentiation. In our view, the core components of a future-proof company-based occupational type of education are the synchronicity of experience-based competence development and school-based teaching and learning processes with the aim of developing occupational competence. Through an incremental, accompanied change of role from apprentice to employed person, this type enables the development of personal, social and professional abilities and attitudes to be integrated. Responsibility for the form of competence development is not limited to individuals or companies alone, but is assumed jointly by the social partners. To realise this company-based occupational type of education, the report sets out principles for an education system. Such an education system would be oriented towards (European) core occupations (Heß/Spöttl 2008), build on the principle of integration for general education schools, realise duality as a principle of vocational learning, and ensure the greatest possible permeability from vocational education programmes to general education.