EDUCATION. Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013

Transcription

1 EDUCATION Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013

2

3 EDUCATION Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013

4

5 Table of Content 1 Table of Content List of tables... 2 List of charts... 2 List of Activities... 2 Resolution of the Federal Cabinet on the Report on Vocational Education and Training Introduction The training market situation in Newly concluded training contracts and the training situation on the 30 th of September Newly concluded training contracts categorised according to structural characteristics Prognosis Current challenges Integrated reporting on training Training for the healthcare professions Vocational training policy measures and programmes Strengthen dual training, intensify careers orientation, ensure the maturity of prospective trainees, facilitate transitions into training, and secure training qualifications and a supply of young skilled staff National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Staff Measures and programmes for improving careers orientation and the maturity young people need for training, and individual mentoring of young people Measures and programmes for optimising transition management, the transition system and innovative approaches to training for adults without vocational qualifications Further measures and programmes for strengthening dual training Ausbildungs- und Qualifizierungsoffensive Altenpflege (Geriatric care training and qualification campaign) Improving employability through continuing education and training and lifelong learning, promoting transfer opportunities in the education and training system Measures and programmes promoting continuing vocational education and training Continuing education and training and lifelong learning Measures and programmes to promote transition opportunities in the education and training system Orienting vocational training towards the future New and modernised training regulations New and modernised further training regulations The BMBF s Vocational Training Research Initiative Skills assessment in vocational training ASCOT Early identification of qualification requirements Digital media in initial and continuing vocational training International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects...79 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training Index....97

6 2 Table of Content List of tables Table 1 Newly concluded training contracts, supply and demand, 1992 to Table 2 Newly concluded training contracts 2012 according to Länder and sector Table 3 Changes to newly concluded training contracts from 2012 to 2011 according to Länder and sector Table 4 Newly concluded training contracts according to financing form Table 5 Newly concluded training contracts according to financing form and Länder Table 6 Whereabouts of applicants for training placed for training beginning by the end of 2012 (subsequent placement)...27 Table 7 New entries into the transition system, 2005 to Table 8 Applicants from earlier reporting years (1 or 2 years before the reporting year)...32 Table 9 New entries into in the integrated reporting on training sectors...41 List of charts Chart 1 Expanded supply and demand ratio, 2009 to Chart 2 Company training places per 100 interested persons according to the expanded definition, 2009 to Chart 3 Computed placement rate (REQ) and placement rate of young people interested in training (EQI), 1992 to Chart 4 The 25 occupations most frequently filled by young women in Chart 5 The 25 occupations most frequently filled by young men in Chart 6 Newly concluded training contracts in occupations with 2 years training...21 Chart 7 Trends in the number of school leavers leaving general education schools from 2000 to Chart 8 Whereabouts of applicants registered with the Federal Employment Agency or Jobcenters on Chart 9 Schooling background of new entries into in the transition system in Chart 10 Trends in the number of new entries into training courses in the transition system Chart 11 Occupations with a high proportion of unfilled training places of all in-company training places 2011 and Chart 12 Shifts between the sectors List of Activities Integrated Reporting on Training National Pact for Training and Skilled Staff Educational chains leading to vocational qualifications initiative Career start coaches special programme Vocational orientation in inter-company vocational training centres and comparable institutions (BOP) Careers counselling Careers orientation Intensive (expanded) careers orientation measures Careers orientation as part of the Initiative Inklusion funding programme Careers start coaching Careers orientation initiative Arena4You Girls Day Boys Day VerA Initiative for preventing premature training termination coach@school pilot project The Vocational Qualification Perspective structural programme JOBSTARTER CONNECT trialing nationally consistent and skills oriented training modules The New ways into dual training heterogeneity as a chance to secure a supply of skilled staff funding priority The JUGEND STÄRKEN Initiative The ESF and Federal Education, economy and employment in the local neighbourhood ( Bildung, Wirtschaft, Arbeit im Quartier BIWAQ ) programme of the Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development (Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung (BMVBS) ESF and Federal programme to provide labour market support for those with a right to stay in Germany and refugees with access to the labour market Pre-vocational training measures Introductory training The Vocational training practically unbeatable information campaign... 57

7 Table of Content 3 JOBSTARTER training structural programme Training place programme for eastern Germany (Ausbildungsplatzprogramm Ost APO) Targeted trainee placement for companies willing to train Training placement pursuant to the German Social Code (SGB III and SGB II) Support during training Non-company vocational training BAföG and basic vocational training allowance Funding for residential homes for young people Inter-company training centre funding (Förderung überbetrieblicher Berufsbildungsstätten ÜBS) Inter-company vocational training in the skilled trades (Überbetriebliche berufliche Bildung im Handwerk ÜLU) Geriatric care and qualification campaign Development of the Upgrading Training Assistance Act (Aufstiegsfortbildungsförderungsgesetz- AFBG) The continuing education bonus Promoting continuing vocational training (Förderung der beruflichen Weiterbildung FbW) Initiative for the initial vocational training of young adults The WeGebAU Programme (Further education and training for people with low qualifications and older employees) The initiative for responding to structural change (Initiative zur Flankierung des Strukturwandels IFlaS) Funding for qualification during short-time work and short-time transfer work The weiter bilden programme (Social Partner Directive) The ESF Vocational training without borders programme The ESF s Information through exchange ( IdA Integration durch Austausch programme The rückenwind personnel development in the social economy programme Literacy and basic education Local learning DECVET the development of a credit system in vocational education and training Continuing training grants ANKOM transitioning from vocational into university education and training The Upgrading Scholarship The Advancement through Education: Open Universities competition The BMBF s vocational training research initiative Skills assessment in vocational training ASCOT Job monitor The BIBB Qualification Panel The Vocational training for sustainable development in the second half of the UN decade Education for Sustainable Development funding priority Digital Media in initial and continuing vocational training International skills competition More international activities... 79

8 4 Resolution of the Federal Cabinet on the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 Resolution of the Federal Cabinet on the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 The Federal Government has adopted the Report on Vocational Education and Training submitted by 2013the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

9 1. Introduction 5 1. Introduction In 2012, the training situation for training place applicants remained positive. The number of unplaced applicants from previous years (3.3 %) and young people in the transition system (6.4 %) has declined significantly compared with the previous year. A fall in the number of training contracts (3.2 %) was recorded in 2012, although this was largely due to deliberate cuts in the number of non-company training contracts (15 %). The decline in the number of in-company training contracts (2.5 %) must be viewed in the light of the record number of in-company training places that have remained unfilled (12.1 %). The markedly increased competition for young skilled staff is strengthening the position and selection options of training place applicants. The training market in 2012 was characterised by the difficulties that companies offering training, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are experiencing in filling their training places. In 2012, the number of vacant training places was 33,275, the highest for many years. This is a result not only of a fall in numbers of schoolleavers due to demographic change, but also of inadequate matching of potential supply and existing demand. The Federal Government regards this as a central challenge for coming years. The number of students leaving school with a secondary general or intermediate school certificate decreased further. Compared with 2005, this is a fall of around 169,000 in 2012 (about 8,500 or 1.6 % compared with 2011). A considerable part of this training is provided by the Länder in a full-time, school-based form, especially in the health care professions (see Chapter 2.6). The Federal Government is certain that the existing mix of vocational and academic training and education qualifications is a model for success and the backbone of Germany economic performance. Vocational education and training must therefore be maintained as the supporting pillar of Germany s education and training system and made viable for the future. The joint efforts of the Federal Government and industry in 2012 continued to focus on making the best use of all potential skilled staff and enhancing the attractiveness of vocational education and training. These efforts included measures to provide cooperative careers orientation measures at an early stage with and in schools as part of Educational Chains, which are designed to improve transitional structures in dual training and specifically attract target groups that have been hitherto underrepresented and disadvantaged in dual training. The emphasis here was on optimising funding and support instruments in the transition system, prioritising preparation for training in companies, establishing coordination between the Federal and Länder governments to ensure the coherence of future funding and support measures under the European Social Fund, and the process of extending training modules to cover other training occupations. Further priorities were a significant expansion of the Educational Chains Initiative and careers orientation measures for teenagers in their final year of school, new initiatives to strengthen the interest of young people from migrant backgrounds in training, and the passing of a law to improve the assessment and recognition of foreign professional qualifications. Measures were also aimed at increasing the attractiveness of vocational education and training through national information campaigns about it and the career opportunities it offers, including and perhaps especially for high achievers, and improving equivalence and transfer oppor tunities in the vocational education and training and tertiary education sectors. A further major milestone in 2012 was the adopting of the German Qualification Framework (Deutschen Qualifikationsrahmen DQR), which equates master craftsman and senior clerk qualifications with the level of a Bachelors degree. Other important achievements were the expansion of upgrading scholarships for those holding vocational qualifications, continuing of support for the gifted and talented in vocational education and training, and the updating of the Jobstarter programme, which will in future promote innovation and reform in vocational education and training, improve equivalence in vocational training, but also attract university dropouts to vocational education and training. At the same time, vocational education and training in Germany, and the dual system as a supporting pillar of that system, took on a new orientational role for other countries in the context of European and international cooperation in The EU s vocational education and training goals for 2020, which are aimed primarily at reforming national systems, are based on the dual principle, on closely integrating school and industry to provide training relevant to the

10 6 1. Introduction labour market, and on introducing vocational education and training systems. The BMBF has promoted the achievement of these goals in 2012 with a European ministers initiative on practically oriented vocational education and training, which was concluded by seven European ministers, with a joint memorandum and with a package of concrete bilateral measures. The European Commission actively supports these initiatives and has declared them as the starting point of its European Alliance for Apprenticeships, which was anchored in the Commission s new strategy paper, Re thinking Education, and will be implemented across Europe from One central international platform for presenting dual training in 2013 was the vocational skills world championship Worldskills. Germany hosted this event, at which the best trainees from around 60 countries will compete in 50 occupations, for the first time in over 40 years, and the BMBF provided substantial support for it. A supporting programme of joint conferences involving the BMBF and the EU, OECD and other international partners focused on increasing the attractiveness of vocational education and training. Among the reasons for this positive development in international vocational education and training cooperation based on the German model are not only the dual system s relative stability, despite the global financial and economic crisis, but also Germany s top youth unemployment ranking, with the EU s lowest youth unemployment rate (8 %, com - pared with 23.4 % in the EU 27 countries and Spain and Greece with well over 50 %), the high standard of German workers qualifications, and their good range of options when entering the labour market after training. Several EU states have already reformed their systems to make them more like the dual system. The OECD too, with its strong focus on tertiary education in the past, has highlighted the dual system s significance and outstanding performance in its comparative international studies. The Federal Government want to use this to actively position the dual system approach in international, supranational and bilateral strategies and reform processes and to implement dual-oriented training with concrete cooperation agreements with partner countries. Both management and labour will be involved here. The BMBF has established a centre for international vocational education and training cooperation at the National Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut for Berufsbildung) to support this process.

11 2. The training market situation in The training market situation in 2012 The situation in the market for training places was good for many young people in The increase in numbers of newly concluded training contracts in recent years has however not continued. On the , 551,272 new training contracts had been concluded, 18,108 (3.2 %) fewer than in the previous year. The fall in the number of contracts is partly a result of demographic developments and a deliberate reduction in non-company training places (15 %). Weakening economic prospects over the course of the year may also have had a negative impact on new contract numbers. Fewer new in-company training contracts were concluded than in 2011(2.5 %). According to data provided by the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit BA) however, more in-company training places remained vacant (3,586 or 12.1 %). On the demand side, the number of unplaced applicants who had neither a training place nor an alternative increased by 4,325 (38.2 %). This result indicates growing matching problems in the training market and increasing difficulties in adapting companies supply and demand to regional and vocational demand. The Federal Government regards this as one of the central challenges of coming years and appeals to industry and to young people to show more flexibility. All opportunities must be used to secure a supply of young skilled staff and offer young people in Germany prospects for qualification. 1 Germany s training market has shown itself to be structurally stable. The calculated ratio between the number of training places offered by companies and young people s demand for training places was again slightly above the previous year s level. The number of young people who were initially placed in the transition system instead of in training was further reduced (6.4 %), as was the number of unplaced applicants from previous years (3.3 %). The dual training system makes a major contribution in keeping Germany s youth unemployment rate, at 8 %, the lowest in Europe. Chapter 2 describes developments in the market for training places in 2012 and identifies the need for action to ensure that all existing potential can be made use of in vocational education and training and to secure a supply of young skilled staff in Germany (see Chapters 2.1 to 2.5). A separate sub-chapter deals with the evolution of training in the healthcare professions and with occupational policy developments in the care sector (see Chapter 2.6). Against the background of demographic change and given the population s growing need for health care, training in this area is becoming increasingly important. 2.1 newly concluded training contracts and the training situation on the 30 th of September According to the results of a BIBB survey of the competent bodies covering the period from the 1 st of October 2011 to 30 th of September 2012, 551,272 new training contracts were concluded nationally, 18,108 or 3.2 % fewer than in This fall in the number of newly concluded training contracts is the result of the deliberate cutback in non-company training places (15 %), although fewer company-based training contracts were also concluded (2.5 %). 3 Both western and eastern Länder recorded falls in the number of contracts concluded. In western Länder the number of newly concluded training contracts decreased by 12,517 or 2.6 % to 472,368. In the eastern Länder, the number of newly concluded training contracts fell by 5,591 or 6.6 % to 78, Programmes the Federal Government uses to promote and support careers orientation, the maturity required for training and a precise matching of trainees with training companies are described in Chapter 3. 2 Due to corrections reported in the Handwerk sector, the BIBB has revised the data for 2011, so there many be discrepancies compared with earlier information. 3 For more details see Chapter 2.2

12 8 2. The training market situation in 2012 Vacant training places and unplaced applicants (Federal Employment Agency (BA) statistics) The BA registered more vacant training places than un placed applicants nationally in With 33,275 training places vacant, there was not only an increase compared with 2011 (3,586 or 12.1 %), but a new record high. This shows that companies difficulties in filling the training places they offer have increased. At 15,650, the number of unplaced applicants was also higher than in the previous year (4,325 or 38.2 %). Western Länder recorded an increase in vacant training places of 2,609 or 10.7 % to 26,990. The number of unplaced applicants here grew by 2,309 or 27.9 % to 10,596. In eastern Länder, the number of vacant training places increased to 988 or 19.1 % to 6,163. In 2012, 5,052 applicants were still unplaced, 2,018 or 66.5 % more than in The surplus of vacant places was smaller compared with the previous year, falling nationally from 18,364 in 2011 to 17,625 in In purely mathematical terms, each unfilled training place could also have been filled more than twice in That this did not occur is due to the fact that young people s desire for training and the training places offered do not match in terms of occupations and regions; an indication of matching problems in the training market. More information is provided on applicants with an alternative on who still wanted to be placed in training and were registered with employment offices and Jobcenters in the following section and (in more detail) Chapter 2.4. The training market situation Various indicators are used to make assessments, based on which meaningful statements about developments in the training place market can be made: 4 Supply and demand ratio (ANR) Following Section 86 Paragraph 2 of the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz BBiG), the number of available training places is shown as the number of newly concluded training contracts from the BIBB survey plus the still unfilled training places registered with employment offices. Demand is calculated from the number of newly concluded training contracts and the number of young people still registered as unplaced with employment offices and Jobcenters 5. According to this calculation, 584,547 training places were offered in 2012 (see Table 1), a decline of 14,522 (2.4 %). Demand for training places was at 566,922, down 13,783 places (2.4 %). ANR was therefore at 103.1, roughly at the level of the previous year (103.2). In 2012, it was more favourable in western Länder, at (2011: 103.3), than in eastern Länder at (2011: 102.4). Expanded supply and demand ratio (expanded ANR) The traditional definition of demand does not completely reflect the number of young people seeking training, so the Report on Vocational Education and Training and National Education Report also uses an expanded definition of demand, which as well as unplaced applicants includes young people who have begun an alternative to training (e. g. a pre-vocational measure or internship), but still want to be placed in training. 6 Their numbers, 60,379 (2011: ) fell slightly (by 439 or 0.7 %), but because the number of training places fell more steeply (2.4 %, see above), the expanded supply and demand ratio worsened slightly compared with the previous year (see Chart 1). In 2012, it was at 93.2 (2011: 93.4). Applying expanded ANR, a more favourable training market situation was recorded in eastern 4 The BIBB systematically classified the most important vocational training indicators in See veroeffentlichungen/de/publication/show/id/ Use of the services of employment offices and the Jobcenter is voluntary for young people and companies, so as well as the training places registered with them there are also more training places that are not recorded, and not all young people take advantage of the employment offices consultancy and placement services. 6 It must be taken into account that the basic criterion of this expanded definition of demand is the applicants continuing desire for a training place. In terms of placement supply aspects, this does not at all mean that all these young people were without a fully-qualifying training place. Among the 60,379 applicants with an alternative on 30 th of September who still wanted a training place, 6,227 were continuing training they had already begun and another 1,259 were studying.

13 2. The training market situation in Länder (2012: 95.1, 2011: 96.6). 7 Expanded ANR in western Länder was at 92.8, as it was in the previous year. If expanded ANR is calculated based exclusively on company-based training places (the number of non-company training places has been deliberately reduced), a slight improvement in expanded ANR was recorded, nationally (2012: 89.1, 2011: 88.6), in western Länder (2012: 89.6, 2011: 89.4) and in eastern Länder (2012: 85.8, 2011: 83.9) equally (see Chart 2). The calculated ratio between the number of company-based training places offered and young people s demand for training places in 2012 was therefore again slightly above that of the previous year. Placement rate of young people interested in training (EQI) In 2010 the BIBB developed a new indicator to represent an alternative to the computed placement rate. This placement rate of young people interested in training correlates the number of newly concluded training contracts on with the number of all institutionally recorded persons interested in training 8. Compared with 2012, the EQI fell slightly (see Chart 3), at 66.9 nationally (2011: 68.3), 67.1 in western Länder (2011: 68.4) and 65.3 (2011: 67.8) in eastern Länder. Computed placement rate The computed placement rate (i. e. newly concluded training contracts per 100 school leavers) is a greatly oversimplified representation of market conditions, because demand for training places does not come solely from among current school leavers. In the past, it has been argued that the advantage of this variable is that it corresponds fairly well with the size of the current year s group of school leavers. Given the introduction of two-year final classes, this argument can no longer be maintained because those with Abitur (higher education entrance qualification), who are not very interested in dual training, are thereby given too much statistical weight. The computed placement rate has therefore become less meaningful. The current results for eastern Länder make this clear. In 2012 national computed placement rate was 64.7 (2011: 66.2) and it was more favourable in eastern Länder (at 68) than in western Länder, at Compared with the previous year (83.8) however, eastern Länder recorded a considerable drop in the computed placement rate. Here the consequences of introducing two-year final classes in Berlin and Brandenburg become apparent. 7 This is due to a different way of dealing with unsuccessful applicants for training places and a different funding policy (with more unplaced applicants who were then placed in non-company training in eastern Länder (Aus bildungs programm Ost ); more applicants with an alternative due to the more comprehensive transition system in western Länder). 8 This is made up of the sum of newly concluded training contracts and registered applicants plus the registered applicants who have been placed in training (otherwise some would be counted twice). The figures cover all young people who have reported an interest in training over the course of the reporting year. On the key date of some of the applicants who had registered for a vocational training place over the course of the year had however given up trying to find a training place or their whereabouts were unknown. This can also mean that some are counted twice though, because the applicants whose whereabouts were unknown may also include some applicants who had in fact commenced training. There are also some applicants who had applied for training although they already had a training place (see Chapter 2.4).

14 10 2. The training market situation in 2012 Table 1: Newly concluded training contracts, supply and demand 1992 to 2012 (Part 1) New training contracts Unfilled places Supply Demand Supply and demand ratio Trend compared with the previous year Contracts Supply Demand absolute absolute absolute Unplaced applicants percent percent percent nationally , ,610 12, , , ,120 85,737 17, , , , , , ,082 54,152 18, , , , , ,774 44,214 24, , , , , , ,327 34,947 38, , , , , , ,517 25,864 47, , , , , , ,529 23,404 35, , , , , , ,015 23,439 29, , , , , , ,693 25,690 23, , , , , , ,236 24,535 20, , , , , , ,323 18,005 23, , , , , , ,634 14,840 35, , , , , , ,980 13,378 44, , , , , , ,180 12,636 40, , , , , , ,153 15,401 49, , , , , , ,885 18,359 32, , , , , , ,342 19,507 14, , , , , , ,307 17,255 9, , , , , , New time series including zkt ,307 17,255 15, , , ,960 19,605 11, , , , , , ,380 29,689 11, , , , , , ,272 33,275 15, , , , , , Western länder , ,953 10, , , ,959 83,307 13, , , , , , ,388 52,462 16, , , , , , ,082 42,889 18, , , , , ,648 33,642 23, , , , , , ,323 25,112 30, , , , , , ,732 22,775 22, , , , , , ,213 22,657 18, , , , , , ,082 24,760 14, , , , , ,183 23,618 11, , , , , , ,426 17,123 13, , , , , , ,747 13,994 22, , , , , , ,876 12,533 29, , , , , , ,162 11,786 29, , , , , , ,215 13,556 33, , , , , , ,787 15,953 23, , , , , , ,604 16,664 10, , , , , , ,309 14,500 6, , , , , ,

15 2. The training market situation in Table 1: Newly concluded training contracts, supply and demand 1992 to 2012 (Part 2) New training contracts Unfilled places Supply Demand Supply and demand ratio Trend compared with the previous year Contracts Supply Demand absolute absolute Unplaced applicants percent percent absolute percent New time series including zkt ,309 14,481 11, , , ,297 15,828 8, , , , , ,885 24,381 8, , , , , , ,368 26,990 10, , , , , , eastern ländern ,261 3,657 2, , , ,161 2,430 3, , , , , , ,694 1,690 2, , , , , , ,692 1,325 6, , , , , , ,679 1,305 14, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,938 1,835 16, , , , , , ,098 2,338 9, , , , , , ,738 2,769 4, , , , , , ,998 2,644 2, , , , , , New time series including zkt ,998 2,644 4, , , ,663 3,662 3,666 95,325 95, , , , ,495 5,175 3,034 89,670 87, , , , ,904 6,163 5,052 85,067 83, , , , Discrepancies between total Western Länder and Eastern Länder figures and national figures may be due to data that cannot be classified. Data may diverge from earlier representations due to subsequent revisions. Sources: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Federal Employment Agency (BA) statistics

16 12 2. The training market situation in 2012 Chart 1: Expanded supply and demand ratio, 2009 to , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Bundesgebiet National Western Alte Länder Eastern Neue Länder Sources: Quelle: Federal Bundesinstitut Institute for für Vocational Berufsbildung Education (BIBB), and Erhebung Training zum (BIBB), 30. September; survey on 30.9., Statistik Federal Employment Bundesagentur Agency für Arbeit (BA) statistics (BA) Chart 2: Company-based training places per 100 interested persons according to the expanded definition, 2009 to National Western Länder Eastern Länder Sources: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), survey on 30.9., Federal Employment Agency (BA) statistics

17 2. The training market situation in Chart 3: Computed placement rate (REQ) and placement rate of young people interested in training (EQI) 1992 to % REQ national REQ Western Länder REQ Eastern Länder EQI national EQI Western Länder EQI Eastern Länder 80.0 % 75.0 % 70.0 % 65.0 % 60.0 % 55.0 % 50.0 % Sources: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), survey on 30 th of September, Federal Statistical Office (StBA); to 2011 actual figures, 2012 estimate, Federal Employment Agency (BA) statistics 2.2 newly concluded training contracts categorised according to structural characteristics Developments in training sectors 9 In the Trade and Industry sector, 332,622 training contracts were concluded nationally in 2012, which was 60.3 % of all new contracts in 2012 (2011: 60.2 %). Compared with the previous year, the number of new contracts concluded nationally in Trade and Industry fell by 10,160 or 3 %. In eastern Länder, a total of new training contracts were concluded, 6,410 fewer (2.2 %) than in the previous year, although the relative proportion of all newly concluded contracts here increased, up from 59.7 % in 2011 to 59.9 % in In western Länder, the number of new training contracts concluded in the area of Trade and Industry fell by 3,750 or 7 % to 49,605 and the proportion of all newly concluded training contracts also decreased slightly (2012: 62.9 %, 2011: 63.1 %). 9 Actual training provided in each of the individual sectors does not precisely match the figures reported for each training sector. Training contracts concluded by those in the Public Service or Professional Services sectors or in training occupations in the Industry, Trade or Skilled Trades sectors, do not fall within their own sectors but are registered within the Industry, Trade or Skilled Trades sectors (for example: a training contracts of someone training to become a vehicle mechatronics technician with the Federal military administration (Wehrverwaltung des Bundes) is registered as training in the Skilled Trades sector). In Hessen the Chambers of Industry and Commerce are in charge of some Public Service occupations and in Schleswig-Holstein and Hessen the Chambers of Industry and Commerce are also the bodies in charge of the Housekeeping training sector.

18 14 2. The training market situation in 2012 In the Skilled Trades a total of 147,327 new training contracts were concluded, a fall of 7,180 (4.6 %). Nationally, 26.7 % of all new training contracts were concluded in the Skilled Trades sector (previous year: 27.1 %). In western Länder the number of newly concluded training contracts declined by 5,808 (4.3 %) to 128,417. In eastern Länder too, numbers of new contracts in this area decreased again with only 18,910 new contracts concluded (1,372 or 6.8 % compared with 2011). In Shipping a total of 182 new training contracts were concluded, 66 (26.6 %) fewer than in Both western (54 or 23.3 % to 178) and eastern Länder (12 or 75 % to 4) recorded steep drops in their numbers. Table 2 shows the number of newly concluded training contracts classified according to training sectors and Länder. Table 3 shows the absolute and percentage changes compared with the previous year. With a total of 43,014, the number of new contracts concluded in the Professional Services sector was slightly above the previous year s figure nationally (402 or 0.9 %). In western Länder a rise of 497 or 1.3 % to 38,361 was recorded. In eastern Länder, the number of new contracts concluded fell by 95 or 2 % to 4,653. The proportion of new training contracts concluded in the Professional Services sector of all new training contracts, at 7.8 %, was slightly above the previous year s figure (7.5 %). A decrease in the number of new training contracts was also recorded in the Public Sector, with a total of 12,103 contracts concluded, 300 or 2.4 % fewer nationally than in This decrease occurred in western Länder (235 or 2.4 % to 9,657) and in eastern Länder (65 or 2.6 % to 2,446). The Agriculture sector reported 13,260 newly concluded training contracts, 223 or 1.7 % fewer than in the previous year. In western Länder 10,594 new training contracts were concluded (156 or 1.5 %). In eastern Länder, a fall of 67 or 2.5 % to 2,666 was recorded. A very steep fall in numbers of new contracts was recorded in the Housekeeping sector, where 2,764 new training contracts were concluded in 2012, 581 or 17.4 % fewer than in the previous year. In western Länder, the number of new training contracts concluded fell by 351 (14.1 %) to 2,143. In eastern Länder, the number of newly concluded training contracts decreased by 230 (27 %) to 621. One cause of the marked decline in the number of contracts concluded in the Housekeeping sector may be the reduction in non-company training places, which traditionally made up a large number of training places in this sector. 10 The Federal Government s training rate, at 7.5 %, was above the committment of 7 % it made in the Training Pact (see Chapter 3.1.1).

19 2. The training market situation in Table 2: Newly concluded training contracts in 2012 according to Länder and sector Land Newly concluded training contracts Total Of which in the sector, Trade and industry Skilled trades Liberal professions Public service Agriculture Housekeeping Shipping Number Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Baden-Wurttemberg 76,317 47, , , , , Bavaria 95,231 55, , , , , Berlin 17,974 11, , , Brandenburg 11,370 7, , Bremen 6,143 4, , Hamburg 14,147 9, , , Hessen 40,244 24, , , , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 8,324 5, , Lower Saxony 58,236 32, , , , , North Rhine-Westphalia 124,111 76, , , , , Rhineland-Palatinate 28,406 16, , , Saarland 8,378 5, , Saxony 18,308 11, , Saxony-Anhalt 11,824 7, , Schleswig-Holstein 21,155 11, , , Thuringia 11,104 7, , Western Länder 472, , , , , , , Eastern Länder and Berlin 78,904 49, , , , , National 551, , , , , , , Source: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, survey on the 30 th of September 2012

20 16 2. The training market situation in 2012 Table 3: Changes to newly concluded training contracts from 2012 to 2011 nach Länder and sector Land Newly concluded training contracts Total Of which in the sector, Trade and industry Skilled trades Liberal professions Public service Agriculture Housekeeping Shipping Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Baden-Wurttemberg 2, , Bayern 2, , , Berlin Brandenburg Bremen 1) Hamburg Hessen Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Lower Saxony 1) 2, , North Rhine-Westphalia 2, , , Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony 2, , Saxony-Anhalt 1, Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia Western Länder 12, , , Eastern Länder and Berlin 5, , , National 18, , , Source: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, survey on the 30 th of September 2012

21 2. The training market situation in Contracts for training in and outside companies Of the 551,272 newly concluded training contracts nationally, 525,370 were company-based (95.3 %) and 25,902 were non-company training contracts (4.7 %). 11 The relative rates indicate a continuing trend towards more company-based training (see Table 4). This is due to the further cutbacks in mainly publicly financed non-company training, where steep drops were recorded. Compared with 2011, the number of non-company training contracts fell nationally by 4,558 (15 %) to 25,902. The number of newly concluded non-company training contracts declined especially steeply in eastern Länder (29.2 %), although western Länder also recorded a fall of 6 %. In contrast to the previous year, fewer new in-company training contracts were concluded. Nationally the number of newly concluded company-based training contracts fell by 13,550 or 2.5 %. Western Länder recorded a fall of 11,390 (2.4 %) to In eastern Länder, the number of newly concluded in-company training contracts fell by 2,160 (3 %) to 70, What is important in this classification is the financing form and not the place of learning. Non-company training places are accordingly mainly publicly financed training places. Table 4: Newly concluded training contracts according to financing form Year Newly concluded training contracts Nationally Western Länder Eastern Länder absolute relative total 564, ,309 98,998 in-company 518, ,439 76,067 non-company 45,801 22,870 22,931 total 559, ,297 91,663 in-company 518, ,821 73,096 non-company 41,043 22,476 18,567 total 569, ,885 84,495 in-company 538, ,191 72,729 non-company 30,460 18,694 11,766 total 551, ,368 78,904 in-company 525, ,801 70,569 non-company 25,902 17,567 8,335 total % % % in-company 91.9 % 95.1 % 76.8 % non-company 8.1 % 4.9 % 23.2 % total % % % in-company 92.7 % 95.2 % 79.7 % non-company 7.3 % 4.8 % 20.3 % total % % % in-company 94.7 % 96.1 % 86.1 % non-company 5.3 % 3.9 % 13.9 % total % % % in-company 95.3 % 96.3 % 89.4 % non-company 4.7 % 3.7 % 10.6 % Source: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), survey on the 30 th of September 2012

22 18 2. The training market situation in 2012 Table 5: Newly concluded training contracts according to financing form and Länder Land Baden- Wurttemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hessen Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania Lower Saxony North Rhine- Westphalia Rhineland- Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig- Holstein Thuringia Year absolute relative in-company non-company total in-company non-company total ,852 2,697 74, ,429 2,384 78, ,194 2,123 76, ,203 3,123 94, ,181 2,565 97, ,878 2,353 95, ,714 3,459 19, ,672 2,724 18, ,913 2,061 17, ,912 2,710 13, ,480 1,641 12, ,178 1,192 11, , , , , , , ,182 1,200 14, , , , , ,646 3,588 40, ,637 2,529 41, ,140 2,104 40, ,165 1,714 9, ,798 1,111 8, , , ,451 1,867 58, ,381 1,466 60, ,624 1,612 58, ,564 6, , ,962 5, , ,787 5, , ,144 1,349 28, ,485 1,485 28, ,025 1,381 28, , , , , , , ,653 5,595 22, ,323 3,187 20, ,584 1,724 18, ,025 3,295 14, ,956 1,928 12, ,447 1,377 11, , , , , , , ,627 1,794 12, ,500 1,175 11, ,093 1,011 11, Source: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), survey on 30.9.

23 2. The training market situation in The proportion of non-company training contracts in eastern Länder is still much higher than in western Länder (see Table 5). The higher proportion of non-company training in eastern Länder does not mean that the training market situation there is still less favourable than it is in western Länder. It in fact results from a different way of dealing with unsuccessful applicants for training places and a different funding policy. While qualifying vocational course modules in the transition system are provided for young people who have not found a training place in western Länder, in eastern Länder, partly as a reaction to a market situation that was very bad for many years, many fully quali fying non-company or school based training places are provided. Now, in response to demographic developments and a resulting decline in demand for training places, the number of non-company training places offered is being deliberately reduced. 12 Gender-specific differentiation More new contracts concluded with young men Of the 551,272 training contracts newly concluded in 2012, 327,189 (59.4 %) were concluded with young men and 224,083 (40.6 %) with young women. This relative proportion is similar to that of the preceding year (2011: 59.3 % to 40.7 %). In past years too, the proportion of new training contracts concluded with young women has always been below the number of new contracts concluded with young men. This is due, among other things, to the fact that many occupations requiring school-based training are more attractive to young women than young men and thus represent an alternative to dual vocational training. 13 One example is school-based training in the healthcare professions See Chapter 3.1.4, Ausbildungsplatzprogramm Ost 13 The Data Report on the Vocational Education and Training Report 2013 (Chapter A 1.1) contains further information on participation rates in training classified according to gender. 14 Of the total of 196,625 students who completed training in healthcare profession in 2011/2012 (see Chapter 2.6), 43,150 (21.9 %) were male and 153,475 (78.1 %) female. Chart 4: The 25 occupations most frequently filled by young women in 2012 Salesperson Retail salesperson Office management clerk Medical assistant Dental nurse Industrial clerk Hairdresser Office communications clerk Salesperson specialising in foodstuff Hotel business specialist Bank clerk Wholesale and foreign trade clerk Tax clerk Paralegal Public administration clerk Insurance and financial service broker Restaurant specialist Cook Freight forwarding and logistics agent Digital and print media designer Veterinary assistant Social insurance clerk Trained car trade salesperson Tourism agent (private and business travel) Optician 0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 Source: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), survey on 30 th of September

24 20 2. The training market situation in 2012 Chart 5: The 25 occupations most frequently filled by young men in 2012 Motor vehicle mechatronics technician Industrial machine fitter Retail salesperson Electronics technician Plant mechanic for sanitation, heating and air conditioning systems Salesperson Information technology specialist Wholesale and foreign trade clerk Warehouse logistics operator Cook Industrial clerk Mechatronics technician Joiner Metal worker Milling machine operator Painter and varnisher Bank clerk Electronics technician for industrial engineering Office management clerk Inventory clerk Gardner Bricklayer Maschine and plant operator Carpenter Roofer 0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 20,000 Source: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), survey on 30 th of September Women are not only underrepresented in dual vocational training, they are also concentrated in fewer training occu pations % of all young women beginning training in 2012 were doing so in just 25 occupations, while 60.4 % of young men were in the 25 occupations most often chosen by young males. Chart 4 and Chart 5 provide information on the 25 occupations most frequently filled by young women and the 25 occupations most frequently filled by young men. Of the seven training sectors, Professional Services had the highest share of contracts concluded with young women, at 93.7 %, followed by Housekeeping (91,5 %) and the Public Service sector (64,8 %). In Trade and Industry 40.3 % of the contracts were concluded with young women. The proportion of women starting training in the Skilled Trades (24.7 %), Agriculture (23 %) and Shipping (8.2 %) was low. Occupations requiring two years training In occupations requiring two years of regular training 15 49,774 new training contracts were concluded nationally in 2012, 2,203 or 4.2 % fewer than in 2011 (see Chart 6). The percentage of occupations requiring two years training as a proportion of the total volume of training places also fell (2005: 7.2 %, 2006: 8.1 %, 2007: 8.6 %, 2008: 8.6 %, 2009: 9.2 %, 2010: 9.5 %, 2011: 9.1 %, 2012: 9 %). 15 Examples of occupations requiring two years training include sales assistant, hospitality industry services specialist, service specialist in dialogue marketing, skilled courier, express and postal services employee, building construction worker, machine and plant operator, inventory clerk and parts finisher. The question of the extent to which young people continued vocational training after completing a two-year vocational training course cannot be answered based on data from the BIBB survey carried out on 30.9., the results of which have been reported on here. The vocational training statistics of the Statistics Offices of the Federal and Länder governments on also cannot answer this questiondue to a lack of firm numbers of people so only approximate calculations can be made. According to these, in the reporting year 2011, up to 27 % of those completing training for a two-year dual training occupation continued training in a dual training occupation in accordance with training regulations (see also the data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, Chapter A 4.4).

25 2. The training market situation in Chart 6: Newly concluded training contracts in occupations with 2 years training 60,000 Eastern Länder Western Länder 50,000 40,000 30,000 21,890 24,384 29,228 37,346 38,579 38,746 40,503 41,578 40,538 20,000 10,000 14,158 15,360 17,297 16,684 14,497 13,265 12,496 10,399 9, Source: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), survey on 30 th of September This fall is especially due to developments in eastern Länder, where 9,236 new contracts were concluded in occupations requiring two years training, 1,163 or 11.2 % fewer than in In western Länder, the number of newly concluded training contracts fell by 1,040 or 2.5 % to The proportion of new contracts in occupations requiring two years training was still higher in eastern Länder, at 11.7 %, than in western Länder at 8.6 %. The fact that relatively more new contracts were con cluded in occupations requiring two years training in eastern Länder than in western Länder is a result of the higher rate of non-company training in eastern Länder. Non-company training is provided comparatively often in occupations requiring two years training and 30.6 % of new training contracts in eastern Länder in 2012 were concluded in occupations requiring two years training, mainly in publicly financed ( non-company ) forms of training. In the preceding year, the figure was 37.1 %. 16 Here too, the reduction in the number of non-company training places offered is reflected. 16 By way of comparison, in western Länder it was 9.5 % (2010: 10.9 %)

26 22 2. The training market situation in Prognosis A look back at the prognosis for 2012 The Report on Vocational Education and Training 2012, based on the results of PROSIMA, the econometric prognosis and simulation model the BIBB uses to assess numbers of training courses offered, assumed that the number of training places would increase slightly to 606,200 in 2012 (point estimation). Taking the usual margins of error 17 into account, it forecast that between 587,000 and 625,000 training places would be offered. With a total of 584,547, the number of training places offered was slightly below the interval estimation. Among the factors possibly playing a role here according to the BIBB, may have been the economic slowdown 18 and the targeted reduction in the number of non-company training places 19. The prognosis for 2013 For 2013 PROSIMA has forecast a further fall in the number of training places offered to between 539,800 and 585,200 places. The point estimation was 562,500, a decrease of around 21,900 places compared with According to these calculations, the number of newly concluded training contracts will range from 525,700 up to 560,900 places. On the demand side, an increase in the number of school leavers qualified to enter higher education and of those not qualified to enter higher education has been forecast for The number of school leavers not qualified to enter higher education will increase for the first time since 2001 by 17,200 or 3.2 % to 551,800. Increases will be recorded in western (13,900 or 3 %) and eastern Länder (3,300 or 4.7 %), although this will not halt the overall demographic trend. By 2014, the number of school leavers not qualified to enter higher education will fall again to 540,500, and a total of just 526,200 school leavers not qualified to enter higher education is expected by This decline will continue further in subsequent years (see page 23). Due to the introduction of two-year final classes in schools in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hessen in 2013, the number of school leavers qualified to enter higher education will increase in There will be an especially marked rise in numbers in western Länder, at 29,700 or 11 %. In eastern Länder, the number of school leavers qualified to enter higher education will fall noticeably by 11,200 or 23.5 %. This steep decline is a result of the introduction of two-year final classes in Berlin and Brandenburg schools in In 2013 the approximate original level prior to the introduction of two-year final classes will be reached. Nationally, the number of school leavers qualified to enter higher education will grow by 18,500 or 5.8 %. The PROSIMA forecast indicates a possibly negative trend in the training market situation for This trend must not necessarily eventuate however. On the one hand, the number of training places offered depends on many determinants that partly influence each other and changes to these can be hard to forecast. 21 On the other hand, PROSIMA makes its forecasts based on past experiential values, so targeted activities can influence the results. The prognosis for 2013 should therefore not be misunderstood as a self-fulfilling prophecy, but as an incentive to further intensify efforts to make use of all potential for dual training. The Federal Government sees the increase of school-leaver numbers in 2013 as an opportunity for companies to fill more training places and secure a supply of skilled staff. A look forward to further developments up to 2025 By 2025, the number of school leavers leaving general edu cation schools unqualified to enter higher education in eastern Länder will have stabilised at a low level. In western Länder their numbers will continue to decline steeply (see Chart 7). Nationally, the number of school leavers not qualified to enter higher education will fall between 2012 and 2025 by around 92,200 (17.2 %). Numbers of school leavers qualified to enter higher education will however decrease in the medium to long term, posing companies with major challenges. 17 Five percent probability of error 18 Over the course of the year, the business climate worsened and companies business performance expectations and growth in gross domestic product weakened, so companies registered fewer training places (from March to May 2012, a plus in each month of over 22,000 places registered compared with the previous year, June +19,700, July +18,400, August , September 2,469). 19 This fall cannot be reliably forecast within the PROSIMA framework. 20 Regional market participants that could not be allocated are not taken into account here in the actual figures for 2012, so there may be slight discrepancies between this and other representations. 21 See also the Data Report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, Chapter A 2.

27 2. The training market situation in Chart 7: Trends in the number of school leavers leaving general education schools from 2000 to 2025 Western Länder 900, , , , , , ,000 higher education qualification no higher education entrance qualification 200, , Eastern Länder 250, , , ,000 higher education entrance qualification no higher education entrance qualification 50, Sources: Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (KMK), Federal Statistical Office (StBA), calculations by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)

28 24 2. The training market situation in Current challenges The current training market situation is characterised by two apparently contradictory developments. On the one hand, companies are finding it increasing difficult to fill the training places they offer. On the other hand, there are still too many young people who do not immediately succeed in directly entering training. Companies difficulties in filling training places have further intensified compared with the previous year, so matching problems in the market for training places will be a central challenge in coming years. The task of a responsible education and training policy is to monitor various developments in the training place market and develop and implement strategies for action in response to them. In doing this, the perspective of companies and of young people 22 must be equally taken into account. Some applicants who have opted for alternatives still want training places At the end of the training placement year, as well as 15,650 unplaced applicants, the BA recorded another 60,379 young people for whom placement efforts were continuing ( applicants who had opted for an alternative by ). These were young people who had begun an alternative to training in 2011/2012, but were still looking for a training place and wanted to be placed in training by the employment office and Jobcenter. This group is taken into account in a training market assessment that uses the expanded definition of demand (see Chapter 2.1). What is positive is that the number of applicants with an alternative on 30.9 as a proportion of all registered appli cants fell in 2012 (2009:13 %, 2010: 12.3 %, 2011: 11.2 %, 2012: 10.8 %). The comparatively high number of applicants in the BA statistics who were no longer seeking active help in their search for a traineeship, about whom no further information was available, and for whom no further placement efforts were being made ( other former applicants whose whereabouts is unknown ), estimated at 89,933, is also not satisfactory. There is a risk that some of these young people will drop out of the education and training system almost unnoticed, with the well-known negative consequences for their employability and opportunities to participate in society. Their numbers increased slightly again in 2012 (2009: 18.2 %, 2010: 17.2 %, 2011: 15.8 %, 2012: 16.1 %). Ac cord ing to data from the BA/BIBB s 2010 survey of applicants, a high proportion of these young people, 28 %, were unemployed, although 13 % of applicants whose whereabouts was un known had also begun training. The current BA/ BIBB survey of applicants for 2012, whose results will be published in 2013, will provide new information on these young people s actual whereabouts. These results show that the transition into training is still difficult for a large number of young people. The Federal Government sees a need for action here and will increasingly focus on this target group. It appeals to industry not to diminish its efforts and to quickly integrate unplaced applicants and applicants with an alternative into training. It also appeals to young people to be flexible and take advantage of the subsequent placement services on offer. As explained in earlier Reports on Vocational Education and Training, it must be taken into account that the expanded definition of demand s basic criterion is the applicants continuing desire for training, so it takes on the perspective of young people looking for training. In terms of placement however, not every applicant who opted for an alternative but is still seeking training is without an alternative fully qualifying training place. Of the 60,379 applicants who had opted for an alternative by the 30 th of September 2012 but were still seeking training for example, 6,227 were continuing a dual training they had already begun (1,166 unfunded and 5,061 funded), while a further 1,259 applicants for training places were studying (see Chart 8). 22 It must be taken into account that the target groups for whom the Federal Government has identified a need for action are not seprate groups. In many cases groups may overlap. Applicants with an alternative by for example, are also partly counted as new entries into the transition system. Previously unsuccessful training applicants are shown according to their former status, not their current whereabouts. They may however meanwhile be in training or in a transition system measure or unplaced.

29 2. The training market situation in Chart 8: Whereabouts of applicants registered with the Federal Employment Agency or Jobcenters on Applicants registered with the Federal Employment Agency (Agenturen für Arbeit) or Jobcenter for vocational training places in ,877 placement efforts concluded 483,848 placement efforts continuing 76,029 placed applicants (applicants who have been placed in a vocational training place) of whom unsupported supported other former applicants* whose whereabouts is known other former applicants* whose whereabouts is not known applicants with an alternative on the School Studies Pre-vocational year Basic vocational training year Internship Previous vocational training of which unsupported supported Employed Military/civil service National/youth voluntary year Pre-vocational training measure Pre-vocational training measure Reha Introductory training other support other support Reha unplaced applicants 259, , , , , , , ,678 40,208 40,240 31,099 29, , , , , ,687 95,693 85,952 89,933 73,054 68,155 60,818 60,379 16,501 16,148 17,602 17, , ,508 1,858 1,315 1,395 6,535 6,156 4,990 4,846 8,228 6,370 5,854 6,227 1, ,166 6,880 5,376 4,859 5,061 8,022 8,740 8,556 9,240 1, ,296 1,430 2,702 3,034 20,262 18,343 13,593 11, ,406 4,242 3,336 2,513 3,828 2,511 1,497 1, ,487 11,990 11,325 15,650 * For the sake of clarity, the alternatives of other former applicants for whom placement efforts have concluded are not listed here. Applicants for vocational training places are persons registered with the Federal Employment Agency (Agenturen für Arbeit) or Jobcenter who sought training in a recognised training occcupation in the reporting year and who were assessed as able to undergo training (young people with the maturity required to undergo training). Source: Statistics from the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit BA); chart from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung BMBF)

30 26 2. The training market situation in 2012 Applicants for vocational training places to begin by the end of 2012 subsequent placement statistics. The placement efforts of employment offices and Jobcenters do not end on the 30 th of September, but continue in a fifth quarter (the so-called subsequent placement phase 23 ). A total of 65,475 applicants were registered with a placement contract for training to begin by the end of 2012, 47,484 applicants from the previous reporting year and 17,991 applicants who were not applicants in the previous reporting year. Among the 47,484 applicants already registered in the reporting year 2011/2012 who were still looking for a training place after the 1 st of October, were 15,569 unplaced applicants 24, 18,345 applicants who had opted for an alternative by 30.9., 6,933 other former applicants and 6,637 unplaced applicants from the previous reporting year. on the 30 th of September 2012, who no longer wanted active help from the employment offices and Jobcenters in their search for a training place and whose whereabouts remained unknown, at 3,053 or 19.6 %, is regrettably quite high. 26 1,200 (7.7 %) formerly unplaced applicants were placed in vocational training and another 1,913 (12.3 %) formerly unplaced applicants were in an alternative to training by the end of 2012, but were still looking for a training place. Table 6 provides information on the situation of applicants for vocational training places to begin by the end of In the context of applicants who had opted for an alternative by 30.9., it must be taken into account that according to the logic of the employment offices and Jobcenter s business processes, only those applicants from the previous reporting year who actively reported a desire for a training place in 2012, even after the 1 st of October, are counted. This means that the number of applicants with an alternative, at 18,345, is much lower than it was on the reference date of the 30 th of September, when it was 60,379 (see Chart 8). Given the fact that the training year is almost over at that point, the group still looking for a training place for the current year in the months from October to December will of course be much smaller. It can be assumed that most of these young people will again register as applicants in the new reporting year. It is very pleasing that the number of unplaced applicants was greatly reduced over the course of the subsequent placement action 25. At the beginning of the year, 15,569 applicants were still unplaced, but by December 2012, their number had fallen to 8,379. Only about half the young people who were invited responded to the invitation to attend the joint subsequent placement action of the responsible authorities, employment offices and Jobcenters, so the number of applicants from the last reporting year who had no training place 23 There may be many reasons for applicants to seek subsequent training placement (such as applicants not having found a training place or having broken off training). 24 The slight difference in applicants registered as unplaced at the end of September (15,650) is, according to the BA, due to the fact that some unplaced applicants have subsequently changed their preference for training and now no longer seeking training under the terms of the BBiG/HwO, but a vocational school or civil service training for example, so are not included in their training market statistics. 25 See Chapter The resulting possible negative effects have been described in the preceding section.

31 2. The training market situation in Table 6: Whereabouts of applicants for vocational training places for training beginning by the end of 2012 (subsequent placement) Total Already applicants in the 2010/2011 reporting year Total of whom Not an applicant in the last reporting year 2011/2012 unplaced applicants on the of the last reporting year applicants who had opted for an alternative on of the last reporting year other former applicants from the last reporting year applicants from the last reporting year placed by Col.1 (Col.2 + Col.7) Col.2 (sum of cols.3 to 6) Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6 Column 7 national 65, % 47, % 6, % 6, % 18, % 15, % 17, % Applicants still seeking training on or seeking training again or for the first time on , with the status in December 2012 of: placed applicants 5, % 3, % % % % 1, % 1, % other former applicants, among whom 9, % 7, % % % 2, % 4, % 1, % no details on whereabouts 5, % 4, % % % % 3, % % 25, % 19, % 2, % 1, % 13, % 1, % 5, % applicants still seeking training who have opted for an alternative unplaced applicants with no alternative 24, % 16, % 2, % 3, % 1, % 8, % 8, % Western Länder 53, % 38, % 5, % 5, % 16, % 8, % 14, % Applicants still seeking training on or seeking training again or for the first time on , with the status in December 2012 of: placed applicants 4, % 2, % % % % % 1, % other former applicants, among whom 6, % 5, % % % 1, % 1, % 1, % no details on whereabouts 3, % 2, % % % % 1, % % 23, % 17, % 2, % 1, % 12, % 1, % 5, % applicants still seeking training who have opted for an alternative unplaced applicants with no alternative 19, % 12, % 1, % 2, % 1, % 4, % 6, % eastern Länder 12, % 8, % 1, % 1, % 1, % 3, % 3, % Applicants still seeking training on or seeking training again or for the first time on , with the status in December 2012 of: placed applicants 1, % % % % % % % other former applicants, among whom 2, % 2, % % % % % % no details on whereabouts 1, % 1, % % % % % % 2, % 1, % % % % % % applicants still seeking training who have opted for an alternative unplaced applicants with no alternative 5, % 4, % % % % 1, % 1, % Source: Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit BA) statistics; calculations by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung BIBB)

32 28 2. The training market situation in 2012 Table 7: New entries into the transition system, 2005 to Sector: Integration into training (transition system) 417, , , , , , , ,732 Training courses at full-time vocational schools that offer a general education lower secondary qualification 68,095 67,949 63,976 59,940 59,812 54,180 49,182 48,486 Training courses at full-time vocational schools that offer basic training that can be accredited. 58,706 59,341 55,548 51,776 49,821 47,478 44,051 42,046 Full-time, school based vocational training year 48,581 46,446 44,337 42,688 32,473 30,620 28,144 26,972 Training courses at full-time vocational schools that offer basic training that cannot be accredited. 29,106 27,811 35,635 33,909 31,928 28,468 25,076 18,828 Pre-vocational training year, including one-year introductory (vocational) classes 58,431 55,339 46,841 42,571 41,973 40,661 38,479 38,685 Training courses at full-time vocational schools for students with no training contract who are employed or unemployed 27,035 28,671 25,789 21,364 20,875 19,186 16,250 18,365 Training courses at full-time vocational schools for students with no training contract who are studying for a general education lower secondary qualification. 13,477 13,192 11,498 9,958 8,968 6,808 6,127 2,258 Obligatory internship before teacher training at vocational schools 3,524 3,561 3,391 3,531 3,724 3,854 3,821 3,835 Federal Employment Agency (BA) pre-vocational measures 91,811 86,171 80,193 78,080 77,934 70,020 58,389 54,699 Federal Employment Agency (BA) introdcuctory training (EQ) 18,881 23,602 23,344 19,220 20,709 18,738 15,403 12,558 Source: Federal Statistical Office, interim report of Integrated reporting on Training Young people in the transition system Numbers of young people entering the transition system have been successfully reduced in recent years was the first year in which fewer than 300,000 young people (284,922) began a measure in the transition system. 27 In 2012, numbers of young people entering the transition system fell further by 18,190 (6.4 %) to 266,732. Compared with 2005, (417,647) a fall in the number of young people entering the transition system of 150,915 or 36.1 % was achieved (see Table 7). This is the conclusion of the initial release of integrated reporting on education for the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 (see Chapter 2.5). The transition system offers young people an opportunity to improve their individual chances of gaining training, so most young people in the transition system have com paratively low-level or no school leaving qualifications. According to data from integrated reporting on training 2011, 28 most young people in the transition system, 52.9 %, had a secondary general school certificate % had no secondary ge ne ral school certificate and 24.6 % of the young people had an intermediate school leaving certificate or equivalent qualification. The proportion of young people in the transition system qualified to enter higher education was very low, just 1.6 %. Young people qualified to enter higher education were represented at above-average levels in introductory training (6.1 %), a measure guaranteeing high rates of inte gration into training. Young people with no secondary general school certificate were especially often in a pre-vocational training year, including one-year careers entry classes (74.9 %), in training courses at vocational schools for students in employment or who are unemployed and have no training contract (39.6 %), and in training courses at vocational schools for students with no training contract who are studying for a general education lower secondary level qualification (34.1 %). 27 Data may diverge from earlier information due to subsequent revision. 28 Detailed data on schooling background is not yet available for 2012.

33 2. The training market situation in Chart 9 shows details on the schooling background of those entering the transition system. There were fewer young women (42.5 %) than young men (57.5 %) in the transition system in The proportion of young women in the obligatory practical traineeship preceding teacher training at vocational schools (85.3 %) is however disproportionately high. Comparatively high percentages of young men were in a basic vocational training year (63.2 %) and in training courses at vocational schools for students with no training contract who are studying for a general education lower secondary level qualification (61.2 %). The proportion of foreign nationals in the transition system in 2011 was 16.8 %. Young foreigners were most strongly represented in pre-vocational training year including one-year careers entry classes (22.4 %). Foreign youngsters were also disproportionately often in training courses at vocational schools for students in employment or who are unemployed and have no training contract (20.2 %), and in training courses at vocational schools for students with no training contract who are studying for a general education lower secondary level qualification (19.8 %). It should be noted that it is also due to the different qualification levels that German and foreign young people have when they leave general education schools. 29 Data from integrated reporting on training makes it possible to report on the number of entries into the transition system and allows this group to be differentiated in various ways (gender, nationality, and schooling background) but it does not contain any information on the individuals educational progress. Complementary surveys are required here. 29 See Chapter 2.4, People from migrant backgrounds Chart 9: Schooling background of new entries into in the transition system in 2011 Sector: Integration into training (transition system) Training courses at full-time vocational schools that offer a lower secondary general education qualification Training courses at full-time vocational schools that offer basic vocational training that can be accredited School-based, full-time basic vocational training year Training courses at full-time vocational schools that offer basic vocational training without accreditation Pre-vocational year, including one-year (vocational) introductory classes Training courses at vocational schools for students with no training contract who are employed or unemployed Training courses at vocational schools for students with no training contract who are studying for a general education lower secondary qualification Obligatory internship before teacher training at vocational schools BA pre-vocational measure BA introductory training (EQ) 0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % 100 % No secondary general school certificate Secondary general school certificate Intermediate school leaving certificate or equivalent Higher education entrance qualification Other previous training Source: Integrated Reporting on Training based on data from the statistics offices of the Federal and Länder governments and the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit)

34 30 2. The training market situation in 2012 Results of the BIBB Transition Study 2011 Initial results from the BIBB Transition Study 2011, which was funded by the BMBF and investigated the training and career paths of young people in the transition from school into vocational training, are now available. 30 According to the study, 29 % of all young people not qualified to enter higher education participated in at least one transition system measure after leaving a general edu cation school % of all young people who went through a (first) transition system measure through to its regular end obtained a school leaving qualification they did not have when they left general education school. 19 % of them gained a general education lower secondary level qualifi cation, 55 % an intermediate school leaving certificate and 26 % an entrance qualification for a university (of applied sciences). 42 % of participants began fully qualifying training within 6 months after leaving the transition system. After 14 months, more than half (54 %) the young people had started training and 70 % of them had started training after 38 months. A higher school leaving qualification had a more positive effect on placement. It must be taken into account that it is not the transitions of the current group of school leavers that are shown here, but young people born from 1987 to 1992, who were surveyed on their past training and career paths in The results should therefore not be evaluated against the background of the current training market situation, because they derive from preceding years in which the training market situation was far more adverse. The still comparatively long transition periods in fully qualifying training must also be interpreted in this context. The Transition Study 2011 delivers supplementary information and a better understanding of the transition system s heterogeneity. It makes it clear that the transition system, as well as its inherent function of preparing for training those young people without the maturity required for training, 30 The BIBB Transition Study 2011 (= retrospective longitudinal survey), financed by the BMBF, records the education, training and occupational biographies of people born from 1987 to The survey was carried out from July to Septem ber 2011 using computer-assisted telephone interviews as a mobile phone survey. Information on 5,333 people was evaluated. The data collected was adapted by weighting them according to central features (such as school leaving qualification, gender, year of birth) based on the microcensus of the structures of basic framework. See also the Data Report on the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, Chapter A The BIBB Transition Study 2006 found a higher figure of 32 %, but the different survey methods used mean that the data must be carefully interpreted. and its bridging function for young people who are mature enough for training but don t have a training place, is also being used by many young people to improve their school leaving qualifications and thus also their wider education and training options. There is no uniform need for action for all the young people in the transition system from an education and training policy point of view. There is for example, no need for action for young people who specifically want to use the transition system to gain a higher school leaving qualification. Although numbers of young people entering the transition system have been reduced, efforts must continue to concentrate on two target groups. They must focus on young people who are not yet mature enough to enter training, who are the transition system s essential target group, and need support to manage the transition into training, as well as on young people who are only in the transition system because they have not found a training place but are mature enough to enter training the and would be able to start. Prognosis on trends in the transition system Integrated reporting on training records the transition system s past development but the transition system s future development is also of great interest from an edu cation and training policy perspective. The BIBB has sub mitted a prognosis of this development for the first time for the Report on Vocational Education and Training It has been updated for the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 and adjusted to reflect current trends. According to this prognosis, the number of entries into the transition system depends in particular on two determinants: the number of school leavers leaving general education schools without a qualification to enter higher education and the number of training places. While there are reliable prognoses for school-leaver numbers, predicting trends in the number of training places is far more difficult 32 so in forecasting the number of training places, the BIBB works with various scenarios. Scenario 1 assumes numbers of training places will fall annually by 1 % from Scenario 2 forecasts a stable number of training places, unchanged compared to 2012, of around 584, See Chapter 2.3 Prognosis

35 2. The training market situation in Chart 10: Trends in the number of new entries into training courses in the transition system (before 2012, actual figures, from 2013, prognoses) 450, , ,000 Actual figures 300, ,000 Trend line Scenario 1: training place numbers decrease annually by 1% from ,000 Scenario 2: constant supply of training places from , ,000 50, Sources: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt), BIBB calculations As Chart 10 shows, the scenarios assume that numbers of young people entering the transition system will fall further by Demographic developments mean that the number of school leavers leaving general education schools with no qualification to enter higher education will fall so steeply that even if it is assumed that the less optimistic Scenario 1 eventuates, a further fall in number of entries into the transition system to 200,000 would be expected. If training place numbers remain constant at about 584,500 annually, as shown in Scenario 2, the numbers entering the transition system would fall to about 167,000. It should be noted that these scenarios are based on certain assumptions, but reality will diverge from these assumptions. The main factors influencing the extent of these divergences include economic developments, the actual number of training places, and the effectiveness of measures and programmes already introduced to support careers orientation and the maturity required for training. The next two years will be a particular challenge because numbers of school leavers not qualified to enter higher education will temporarily increase 33 Both scenarios for 2013 and 2014 forecast a slight rise in entries into the transition system. This need not occur if more young people than in previous years can be successfully enabled to enter training directly. More opportunities for unplaced applicants from previous years In response to the increase in numbers of unplaced applicants from previous years, 34 the Federal Government has implemented targeted measures for young people who need extra support (see Chapter 3). These collective efforts 33 See Chapter The tight situation on the training market in earlier years (until 2005 decreasing numbers of training places and growing numbers of schoolleavers) resulted in increased numbers of applicants who have not been placed in company-based training but in alternative training and qualification courses. This group mainly still wants to be placed in training in the dual system and therefore competes with current schoolleavers for the training places offered. Although the training place has eased, previously unsuccessful training applicants continue to represent a challenge.

36 32 2. The training market situation in 2012 have resulted in a fall in numbers of unplaced applicants from previous years but there is still a need for action here. Unplaced applicants from previous years are therefore an important target group in the National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Staff Applicants from earlier reporting years The BA s collection of data on unplaced applicants from previous years was fundamentally improved in Data is now available on applicants from school leaving years preceding the reporting year (see below) and on applicants from earlier reporting years. This data indicates a fall in the number of unplaced applicants from previous years (see Table 8): Western Länder (2011: 141,121, 2012: 136,872) and eastern Länder (2011: 26,920, 2012: 25,638) had falls, with a steeper fall in eastern than in western Länder at 4.8 %. In interpreting the data, it must be taken into account that the BA allocates its annual categories according to when a person was last registered as an applicant, so it is impossible to state currently whether a person who registered for the last time before the reporting year had already sought a training place with BA support in earlier years. The fact that a person was last recorded as an applicant some time ago does not necessarily mean that they have been unsuccessfully seeking a training place for the entire intervening period. Compared with 2011, the number of applicants who applied for training one or two years before the reporting year fell by 5,531 or 3.3 % to 162, See the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2011, page Past Reports on Vocational Education and Training have at this point shown developments in the number of applicants who were applicants in at least one of the past five reporting years. Because the BA has not accounted for applicants registered with licensed local authority agencies (zugelassene kommunale Trägern zkt) from 2008/2009, they could not be taken into account in information with a five-year range, i.e. data concentrated only on applicants registered with employment offices (Arbeitsagenturen) and Jobcenters (ohne zkt). In the interests of consistent representation, the number of applicants who had applied one or two years before the reporting year is now shown in the BA s monthly reporting and applicants from the zkt are included. This data does not of course reach back as far in time, but the advantages of a consistent definition and representation of applicants from earlier reporting years may outweigh any disadvantage. The development in numbers of applicants from earlier reporting years in the five-year range (not including zkt) is shown here for information purposes: 2009: 203,723, 2010: 186,650, 2011: 176,192, 2012: 170,104. This representation also shows a further decrease (6,088 or 3.5 % compared with 2011). Table 8: Applicants from earlier reporting years (1 or 2 years before the reporting year) Year National Total Applicants 1 or 2 years before the reporting year Applicants 1 year before the reporting year of whom Applicants 2 years before the reporting year ,062 x 155,471 x , , ,660 20,421 Applicants 1 or 2 years before the reporting year compared with the previous year absolute relative , , ,643 20,907 5, Western Länder ,402 x 131,033 x , , ,140 15, , , ,897 16,975 4, Eastern Länder ,489 x 24,396 x ,741 26,920 22,484 4, ,429 25,638 21,711 3,927 1, Source: Statistics from the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit BA)

37 2. The training market situation in Applicants who left school in years preceding the reporting year For a long time, the BA s training market statistics did not include any information on whether registered applicants had sought a training place with BA or zkt support in previous years. It was only known whether current applicants had left school some time ago. Applicants who left school in years before the reporting year were defined in the BA statistics as unplaced applicants from previous years, even though it was known that they were not necessarily unplaced applicants from previous years who had in fact sought a training place before. 37 There was also a positive trend in numbers of applicants who left school in years preceding the reporting year. The number of applicants who left school in years preceding the reporting year has fallen continuously since (2009: 257,839, 2010: 259,040, 2011: 238,538, 2012: 232,042). Compared with 2011, there was a fall of 6,496 or 2.5 %. Western Länder (2009: 200,073, 2010: 206,881, 2011: 190,044, 2012: 185,667) and eastern Länder (2009: 57,703, 2010: 52,084, 2011: 48,407, 2012: 46,291) had falls. In western Länder the number of applicants who left school in years preceding the reporting year fell by 4,377 or 2.3 %. In eastern Länder, there was a fall of 2,116 or 3.3 % compared with The relative proportion also fell from 2011 to 2012, nationally (2009: 46.1 %, 2010: 46.6 %, 2011: 43.9 %, 2012: 41.4 %), in western Länder (2009: 44.5 %, 2010: 44.9 %, 2011: 42 %, 2012: 39.7 %) and eastern Länder (2009: 52.6 %, 2010: 54,5 %, 2011: 53.3, 2012: 50.1 %) equally One example is young people who apply for a training place for the first time after completing Voluntary Service. Conversely, applicants from the current group of schoolleavers may be regarded as previously unplaced applicants if for example, after unsuccessfully applying, they decide to improve their qualifications by returning to school (see the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2011, page 32). 38 Analogous to other reporting in this Report on Vocational Education and Training, all applicants (including those with zkt) are registered here, so reporting begins in In considering these relative proportions, it must be noted that demographic developments also play a role in developments of schoolleaver numbers. If numbers of schoolleavers fall steeply, the number of applicants who have just left school will also fall from year to year. This increases the proportion of applicants who left school in earlier years as a relative figure (see also the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2011, page 32). Results of the BA/BIBB applicants survey In contrast to BA statistics, the BA/BIBB applicants survey records when an applicant first applied for training. In 2010, 209,240 (38 %) of registered applicants were categorised as belonging to the group of unplaced applicants from previous years. The survey also showed that the group of unplaced applicants from previous years is very heteroge neous with partly good but partly very bad training prospects. Their chances of being placed in training depend on various factors. The longer ago they left school, the lower their marks were there, the older the applicant is, the worse their prospects of gaining a company-based training place are. The results of the current BA/BIBB applicants survey of 2012 will be published in Companies cannot fill training places Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to fill training places due to falling numbers of applicants owing to demographic changes. One indication of this is the steep increase in unfilled vocational training places registered with the BA (2009: 17,255, 2010: 19,605, 2011: 29,689, 2012: 33,275). Surveys of companies also show that their search for trainees is becoming increasingly difficult. According to the results of the BIBB Qualification Panel , more than a third of the companies surveyed (37.4 %) were partly or completely unable to fill training places they offered, which is an increase on the 2011 figure of 34.8 %. Eastern Länder recorded an especially significant increase in unfilled places, with 64.8 % (2011: 48.1 %) of companies unable to fill one or more training places. Far fewer companies in western Länder were affected and their numbers fell slightly compared with the previous year (2012: 30.9 %, 2011: 32.7 %). Smaller and very small businesses had far more difficulty filling their training places. The proportion of vacant vocational training places falls inversely with an increasing number of employees (1 19 employees: 42.4 % (2011: 42.2 %), employees: 28.3 % (2011: 27.7 %), employees: 28.2 % (2011: 22.2 %), 200 and more employees: 17.5 % (2011: 19.4 %). Among the possible ex planations for this offered by the BIBB is that large companies are far more attractive to young people as training providers and they also have more funds available for recruiting measures See also the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2011, page See also data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, Chapter A See also the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2012, page 33.

38 34 2. The training market situation in 2012 Chart 11: occupations with a hugh proportion of unfilled training places of all in-company training places 2011 and Restaurant specialist 26.1 % 29.8 % Professional caterer 20.5 % 22.0 % Butcher 18.7 % 24.9 % Salesperson specialising in foodstuffs 16.8 % 22.1 % Hospitality services industry specialist 16.8 % 19.9 % Plumber Hotel clerk Industrial cleaner 15.9 % 14.4 % 15.7 % 15.4 % 15.3 % 22.9 % Cook 14.4 % 17.8 % Baker 14.3 % 21.4 % 0 % 5 % 10 % 15 % 20 % 25 % 30 % Sources: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), survey on 30 th of September, Federal Employment Agency (BA) statistics Based on the results of the BIBB survey on the 30.9., occupations in which the number of unfilled in-company training places is especially high as a proportion of all training places offered have been identified. Since here by definition only vacant training places registered with the BA are included in the calculations, this proportion is somewhat lower than in the surveys of companies mentioned. Compared with the previous year, the proportion of unfilled vocational training places of all company training places offered increased in almost all occupations (apart from that of hotel clerk) (see Chart 11). From an education and training policy point of view, unfilled training places are not only a temporary problem of the current training year. The possibility cannot be excluded that companies that are repeatedly unable to fill the training places they offer, may withdraw altogether from dual vocational training in the long term and so not use an important instrument for securing a supply of skilled employees. The fall in the number of companies providing training already discussed in the context of 2010 in the Report on Voca tional Education and Training 2012 continued in This is the conclusion reached by the BIBB after evaluating data from the BA s company statistics. 455,100 of the 2,094 million national companies with at least one employee for whom they pay social insurance contributions offered training in 2011, 13,700 fewer (2.9 %) than in The number of companies providing training therefore fell to the lowest level since The total number of companies in contrast, increased for the fifth year in a row, growing by 13,600 (0.7 %) compared with the previous year. The proportion of companies providing training 43 therefore fell further, decreasing by 0.8 % to 21.7% (2010: 22.5 %, 2009: 23.5 %, 2008: 24 %, 1999: 23.6 %). A drop in the number of smallest companies 44 (6 %) was solely responsible for the fall in the number of companies providing training in The number of small companies offering training remained constant (0 %). The number of companies providing training among medium-sized (1.8 %) and large companies (2.3 %) increased but to a lesser extent as the total number of companies. 43 The training company rate describes the proportion of companies with trainees of all companies with employees for whom they pay insurance contributions including companies providing training. 44 Company sizes are defined as follows: smallest companies 1 9 employees, small companies employees, medium-sized companies employees, large companies 250 employees and more.

39 2. The training market situation in Classifying companies according to size, the following proportions of companies provided training: smallest companies 14.2 % (2010: 15.1 %), small companies 45.7 % (2010: 46.9 %), medium-sized companies 67.6 % (2010: 68.3 %) and large companies 84.8 % (2010: 85.2 %). It should be noted that not every company is authorised to provide training. According to data from the IAB Establishment Panel, the proportion of companies authorised to provide training increases the larger the company is. While half the smallest companies are authorised to provide training, over 90% of large companies with more than 500 employees are entitled to provide training. 45 The Federal Government will continue to monitor these developments and expects important additional findings from survey of companies such as the BIBB Qualification Panel, which is funded by the BMBF. 46 The Federal Government recommends that companies report their unfilled training places to employment offices. Young people should involve the BA in their search for training places. Young adults with no vocational qualification In 2010, 14.1 % of young people aged between 20 and 29 in Germany (1.39 million) had no vocational qualification and thus lack the prerequisite for qualified participation in working life 47. This is connected with significant negative consequences for individuals and for society as a whole. 48 Given current demographic developments, these young people will also be needed as skilled workers. What is positive is that there were slight improvements compared with previous years. The quota of unskilled 45 Detailed analyses of trends in the proportion of companies offering training and the training rate depending on company size and branch of industry and on the entitlement of companies to offer training can be found in the data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, Chapters A and A See Chapter This group is sehr heterogeneous. It is made up mainly of less-qualified people who tend to have problems on the labour market as well as people who have not completed training / a course of studies. They are formally regarded as having low qualifications or as unqualified, but have fewer problems integrating into the labour market, because they have already acquired qualifications and often only break off training when they have found prospective employment. 48 A BIBB analysis of the situation of unqualified or less-qualified workers came to the conclusion that the employment situation of the unqualified has become increasingly difficult as a result of a continuing decline in the number of jobs in which they can find employment. This group s risk of unemployment is three times as high as that of people have completed vocational training (see also the BIBB Report 17/12, 20 to 29 year olds was 14.9 % in 2008 and 14.6 % in The proportion of unskilled young adults (20 to 24 year olds) fell more steeply (2008: 15.3 %, 2009: 14.1 %, 2010: 13.9 %) but there is still a need for action here. Experience has shown that providing early, continuous and individual support to young people (through careers coaches and mentors in combination with systematic tran si tion management, for example) is the right approach in qualifying them to take part in working life. It is also vital to establish training structures for adults with no vocational qualifications, so the Federal Government has strengthened its commitments in this area (see Chapter 3). The interdisciplinary working group on Mobilising all Potential to Secure a Basic Supply of Skilled Staff ( Mobilisierung aller Potenziale zur Sicherung der Fachkräftebasis ), part of the government s demography strategy, led by the BMAS and co-chaired by the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit BA), focuses on integrating and qualifying young adults without a vocational qualification. The BMAS and BA launched an initiative covering all legislatively defined groups to provide certified qualifications for young adults (aged 25 to 35) in February 2013 (see Chapter 3.2.1). Premature termination of training contracts and courses According to vocational training statistics provided by the Federal and Länder government statistical offices, 149,760 training contracts were prematurely terminated nationally in 2011, so the termination rate was 24.4 % and increased compared with previous years (2009: 22.1 %, 2010: 23 %) The termination rate is the proportion of prematurely terminated training contracts of all newly concluded contracts. Since it cannot yet be known how many trainees with newly concluded training contracts will prematurely terminate their contract in the current reporting year, a so-called layer model is used to calculate the training contract termination rate, which approximately determines the training contract termination rate of the current group of trainees. With the conversion of vocational education and training statistics by the statististical offices of the Federal and Länder govern ments to individual data collection (see the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2010, page 31) the training contract termination rate can be more precisely calculated, because the month and year of central trainingrelevant events is also now recorded. Contract terminations can also be differentiated according to the year in which the contract began and expressed as a percentage of all newly concluded contracts (see a21_dazubi_daten.pdf, pages 20 25). Another advantage of individual data collection is that contract terminations can be evaluated in accordance with all the variables used in the vocational education and training statistics, so also according to the trainee s schoolleaving qualification and nationality. The new computation process will first apply to the 2009 data, because the conversion of statistics meant that no reliable data was available for 2007 and the quality of the data for 2008 left a lot to be desired. The possibility

40 36 2. The training market situation in 2012 Training contracts may be terminated for a diverse range of reasons, including a change of occupation by the trainee, a change from non-company training to in-company training or insolvency and closure of the company. These cannot all be equated with a simple termination of training. Rates of contract termination also vary greatly between individual training occupations. Among the occupations with very high rates of contract termination are for example a number of occupations in the hotel and hospitality sector (restaurant specialist (51 %), cook (49.4 %) and hospitality services industry specialist (44 %)). Higher than average contract termination rates were also recorded in the occupations of specialist in furniture, kitchen and removal services (50.9 %), safety and security specialist (49.5 %), safety and security services specialist (47 %) and beautician (45 %), The occupations of clerk in public administration (3.7 %), specialist in media and information services (4.1 %) and electronics technician for automation technology (4.8 %) had very low rates of contract termination. Certain groups of people are more affected by this problem than others. Further BIBB analyses of vocational training statistics show that the contract termination rate is higher, the lower the trainees general school leaving qualification is (no secondary general school certificate: 38.6 %, with secondary general school certificate: 34.5 %, with an intermediate school leaving certificate: 21 %, with a university entrance qualification: 13.6 %). There are also notable difference between German and foreign national trainees. An average of 30.9 % of the training contracts of foreign trainees were prematurely terminated, while just 24 % of the contracts of trainees with a German passport were prematurely terminated. These differences in the premature termination rate can partly be explained by differences in the highest general education school leaving qualifications achieved by these two groups. 50 By way of comparison, the dropout rate at universities for the 2010 group of students was 23 % for Diplom degree courses and 28 % for Bachelors degree courses. The vocational training statistics provide data on the extent of prematurely terminated contracts but they cannot deliver information on the reasons and the young people s whereabouts. There is in particular no information available on how often dual training is in fact ended with no qualification. A need for further research in this area was noted in the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2012 and new findings are now available. A special analysis of the BIBB Transition Study 2011 concluded that an estimated 12 % of trainees end their first dual vocational training in their originally chosen occupation with no qualification. The figure is much higher for young people with a secondary general school certificate (18 %) than it is for those with an intermediate school-leaving certificate (9 %). Further risk factors for not completing training are a history of bad marks at school or the parents lack of vocational qualification. Whether young people were being trained in their chosen occupation also plays an important role here. Of the young people who ended their initial training with no qualification, 41 % were not being trained in their chosen occupation. More than half the youth surveyed (53 %) declared that the reason why they ended their training without a qualification was that the training was not the right one for them. Also often mentioned were problems with trainers, teachers, colleagues and other students (46 %) and personal, financial and health reasons (42 %) More rarely, young people said they had aspired to a different training course (28 %) or found a job or had a prospect of a job (16 %). 16 % said that training had turned out to be too hard and 12 % had failed an intermediate or final examination. Many young people mentioned not just one but several reasons. Within 24 months after unsuccessfully ending their first dual vocational training, an estimated 48 % of young people were again in fully qualifying training. An estimated 34 % of young people who ended their first dual vocational training with no qualification began another dual vocational training course within two years. 10 % started training in an educational occupation or for the civil service and 3 % began studying at a university (of applied sciences). The next survey by the BIBB Qualification Panel 51 deals with the topic of premature contract terminations, because it is important to be aware of the perspectives of young people and the views of companies of this problem. still cannot be excluded that there will still be reporting errors, even though data quality has continuously improved. Because of the new calculation formula, the data provided from 2009 cannot be compared with that in earlier presentations. 50 See also the next section on People from migrant backgrounds 51 See Chapter 3.3.4

41 2. The training market situation in The premature termination of contracts cannot be entirely avoided and may even be necessary and reasonable. At the same time, termination of a training contract results in uncertainty and a loss of time, energy and other resources for both parties (companies and young people). In the worst case, they could lead young people and companies to end their involvement in training. The Federal Government has recognised a need for action here and launched measures that aim to promote careers orientation and trainees maturity at an early stage of general education at school (such as careers orientation programmes), and to provide individual support for trainees (such as VerA). All these measures are described in detail in Chapter on Measures and Programmes to Improve Careers Orientation and Young People s Maturity for Training, Individual Mentoring of Young People. Foreign young people are still strongly underrepresented in vocational training. In 2011, the rate 55 at which young foreigners entered training, 29.8 % (2010: 29.5 %) was only about half as high as the rate for young Germans, at 60.2 % (2010: 57.8 %). Compared with the previous year, rate at which German young people entered training grew more strongly (2.4 %) than the rate for foreign young people (0.3 %). The greatest increase was among German young men (4.1 %) followed by German young women and foreign young men (at 0.6 % each). The rate of young foreign women starting training rose only minimally (0.1 %). Why rate of premature termination of contracts did not fall in 2012 despite these measures cannot currently be entirely explained. There may be a connection between positive economic developments and easing of the training market. In a time of more favourable economic developments more training places on offer, a change of company and training occupation may not seem as risky. 52 This is indicated by current BIBB analyses, which have identified a positive connection between an increase in the supply and demand ratio and in the rate of premature contract termination. 53 People from migrant backgrounds There is still a considerable need for action to improve the training opportunities of young people from migrant backgrounds. According to data provided by the statistical offices of the Federal and Länder governments, foreign young people leave school without a qualification more than twice as often as young Germans (2011: 11.8 % compared with 5 %). There has been some success in further reducing numbers of young people without any school leaving qualifications compared with the previous year (2010: 12.8 % compared with 5.4 %). This fall was greater among foreign young people, at 1.0 %, than among German young people, 0.4 %. Foreign young people s school leaving qualifications are generally lower than those of German youngsters The Report on Vocational Education and Training 2012 also reported on this topic. 53 See the data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training , Chapter A : Secondary general school certificate: 35.6 % foreign vs.17.4 % German young people; Intermediate school leaving certificate: 35.9 % foreign vs % German young people; entrance qualification for study at a Fachhochschule: 1.6 % for both foreign and German young people; general higher education entrance qualification: 15.2 % foreign vs % German young people. It must be taken into account in this context that there is a well-known link between students schoolleaving qualifications and the socio-economic status of their parents. 55 Analogous to the representation in the data report (Chapter A 5.4), it is not the training participation rate, but the rate of new entries into training that is now shown here, because the training participation rate overestimates the proportion of young people who have begun training at some time in their occupational biography. This is due to the fact that contracts in the training participation rate may be counted several times e. g. due to follow-up contracts, second training courses, renewed training after premature termination of a contract, or a transfer from non-company to company-based training. The rate of new entries into training is therefore somewhat lower than the overall training participation rate.

42 38 2. The training market situation in 2012 It must be taken into account here that schools and vocational training statistics do not record respondents migrant backgrounds, but nationality, so only some groups of young people from migrant backgrounds are recorded here. Empirical surveys however, enable supplementary statements to be made on migrant background here. Based on the findings of the BIBB Transition Study 2006, the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2010 showed that young people from migrant backgrounds have just as much interest in vocational training after they leave general education schools as German young people have. Yet young people from migrant backgrounds remain disproportionately often without vocational qualifications. The fact that the search for training places is more difficult for young people from migrant backgrounds than for young people who are not from a migrant background is borne out by a special evaluation of the BA/BIBB survey of applicants in According to the survey, generally lower school qualification levels are the main cause of the lower rate of training placements among young foreigners. But even if they have the same school qualifications, young people from migrant backgrounds are given significantly fewer opportunities than young Germans. The findings also show that there are great differences within the group of young migrants, depending on their country of origin. It is much harder for young Turks or Arabs in particular to find a training place. As well as less advantageous school leaving qualifications, different career choices and other circumstances such as the regional training market situation or companies selection processes in awarding training places have been mentioned as possible explanations. 57 Vocational training gives young people with and without a migrant background the tools they need to succeed in the world of work and enables them to lead an independent life. After education at school, vocational training is a central instrument in the social integration of migrants. Given demographic developments and to avoid a possible shortage of skilled staff, the German economy needs all its young people. The Federal Government s main goal is therefore to abolish existing barriers to access to training and employment for young people from a migrant background, so they are a crucial target group in the National Pact for Training and Skilled Staff in Germany With the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications Act (Anerkennungsgesetz) which came into force on , the Federal Government has introduced a law establishing easier procedures for systematically accrediting foreign vocational qualifications in Germany. The Recognition Act will make it easier for people who have obtained vocational qualifications abroad to work in the occupation they trained for in Germany. The process and criteria for assessing foreign vocational qualifications have been standardised, expanded and improved for nationally regulated occupations. Under the provisions of the Recognition Act, occupational qualifications acquired abroad can now be recognised in Germany as equivalent to German qualifications. Processes established in the Professional Qualifications Assessment Act (Berufs qualifikations feststellungsgesetz BQFG), especially those for non-regulated training and advanced training qualifications in the dual system, are also new. These new processes will help to sustainably attract skilled staff to Germany and integrate workers with good foreign qualifications. The IHK Fosa was founded as the central authority for assessing and recognising foreign occupational qualifications in sectors covered by the chambers of industry and commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammern IHK). This bundling of authority makes it possible to build specific expertise, ensures consistent and efficient processes to assess equivalence and makes an essential contribution to implementing the Recognition Act. In the skilled trades sector, authority is bundled in lead chambers ( Leitkammern ). The BQ portal ( provides the chambers with comprehensive information to help them assess foreign occupational qualifications. Initial experiences from the consultation of the competent bodies, the coordinating offices of the Integration through Education IQ funding programme and visitor figures for the recognition portal all demonstrate the great interest in the recognition process. Many decisions made by the chambers of industry and commerce have established full equivalence between a foreign and a German qualification. The legal consequences are then the same as for a German qualification (e. g. access to higher education for holders of vocational qualifications). Even partial equivalence makes it easier for employers to assess foreign qualifications and tie them in with in-house training and other further training. Initial representative data on the recognition process is scheduled to be released as part of wider Federal statistics in mid See the BIBB Report 16/11, 57 See the data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training , Chapter A See Chapter 3.1.1

43 2. The training market situation in Vocational training for people with disabilities The Federal Government intensively promotes the in te - gration of people with disabilities into the world of work 59. Under the provisions of the German Social Code (Sozialgesetzbücher SGB) Volumes II, III and IX, theses young people are supported by the BA even before they leave school with a comprehensive range of vocational orientation and counselling services to help them manage the transition from school into work. 60 In-depth careers orientation is also offered in cooperation with third-party providers in special schools in this phase. In June 2011, the Federal Cabinet adopted a national action plan to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and further include people with disabilities in society. 61 The vocational training of people with disabilities is also being tackled in the National Action Plan for Work and Employment. The Federal Government is also restructuring its disability report, which will now be issued once per legislative period. It will serve as a major orientation for the Federal Government s future disability policy. If a company is not a suitable place for a young person to train because of their disability, they can, depending on their individual need for support, gain a vocational qualification in non-company, residential-based training or a basic and further training organization. According to interim data, an annual average of 43,695 people with disabilities participated in an employment promotion measure with the goal of a vocational qualification as part of initial integration into an occupation in 2012 (2011: ). A further 14,683 young people (2011: 15,215) were in pre-vocational courses. An annual average of 19,752 people (2011: 20,323) were funded to take part in admissions procedures and vocational training in a workshop for people with disabilities. These were people who, due to their disability, were not or not yet able to work in accordance with the demands of the ordinary labour market. The Vocational Training act (BbiG) and Crafts Code (Hand werksordnung HwO) stipulate that disabled people, just like people without disabilities, are to be trained in recognised training occupations. People with disabilities should be trained within companies as far as possible, taking the special needs of people with disabilities into account. For people whose kind and degree of disability makes vocational training in a recognised training occupation impossible, the relevant authorities should develop training regulations based on recognised training occupations. To ensure the necessary transparency and consistency, the legislations stipulates that such regulations should be based on recommendations made by the BIBB Board (S. 66 of the BBiG, S.of 42m of the HwO). Based on these regulations, 9,916 new training contracts were concluded nationally in The data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 deals with the topic of inclusion in a new chapter (Chapter A 4.10). 60 See also Chapter 3.1.2, Inklusion Initiative funding programme Careers Orientation Area for Action 61 See a740-aktionsplan-bundesregierung.html

44 40 2. The training market situation in Integrated reporting on training Integrated reporting on training aims to completely and systematically map young people s training paths after they complete stage I secondary education. Integrated reporting on training divides training measures into in four sectors based on the training s main goal: vocational training, integration into training (transition system), acquisition of a higher education entrance qualification and university studies. 62 Initial findings are published in a so-called initial report. According to the initial report on the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, vocational training, with 730,352 new trainees, was the largest sector in This sector includes training in the dual system, vocational training at vocational schools and training in health and social services occupations (see Table 9). Compared with 2011, the number of new trainees in the vocational training sector declined (10,671 or 1.4 %). This is not due to a decrease in vocational training in the dual system alone. Numbers of new trainees in full-time, school-based vocational training also fell. Slight increases were recorded in new trainees in vocational training in health, education and social services occupations. 63 The number of new entries into the transition system fell further in A total of 266,732 young people began a transition measure in 2012, 18,190 or 6.4 % fewer than in Compared with 2005 their number fell by 150,915 or 36.1 % (see also Chapter 2.4). The number of young people in stage II secondary education, which results in a higher education entry qualification, also increased (12,433 or 2.5 % to 505,129). The number of first-year university students fell com pared with the previous year by 26,223 (5 %). This does not indicate an increasing reluctance to attend university, but is due to disproportionately strong growth in numbers of first-year university students in The introduction of two-year final school classes in Bavaria and Lower Saxony and abolition of compulsory military service led many more young people to begin university studies in The introduction of two-year final school classes in Baden-Wurttemberg, Berlin, Brandenburg and Bremen affected the numbers of new enrolments at universities there in Table 9 and Chart 12 provide information on developments in various sectors over time. Integrated reporting on training was established from 2009 to 2011 in two projects: a BIBB project and a joint project of the Federal and Länder government statistical offices. The BIBB project focused on developing and ana lysing meaningful training reporting indicators. 65 The government statistical offices project prioritised the development and provision of data for a system of indicators covering all the Länder. The inclusion of integrated reporting on training in the standard delivery programme of the statistical offices from 2012 has secured the collection of data for the Report on Vocational Education and Training and the data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training in the long term. It also achieves a major goal of the project, of providing a complete and current overview of data in the Report on Vocational Education and Training. The BMBF has extended the BIBB project and the term of the National Pact for Training and Skilled Staff until Inthis phase, the work already begun will be continued, indicators optimised and a long-term time series for reporting on training be established. The results show that integrated reporting on training is already adding value, which has also been increased by the widespread introduction of individual data collection. 66 The Federal Government appeals to the Länder to support integrated reporting on training by providing comprehensive individual data. 62 The classification in integrated reporting on training unterscheidet differs from that of the Bildung in Deutschland (Training in Germany) report, which differentiates between training in three sectors (the dual system, school-based occupation system and transition system ). Their results are therefore only partly comparable. 63 Vocational training in the dual system ( 2.1 %), full vocational qualification at a vocational school as defined in the BBiG/Hw0 ( 8.4 %), fully qualifizierend full-time vocational school not defined in the BBiG/HwO ( 7.6 %) training courses at full-time vocational schools and specialised grammar schools that provide a vocational qualification and highed education entrance qualification ( 0.6 %), training in healthcare, educational and social welfare occupations regulated by the Federal and Länder governments (+1.4 %), training for the civil service at the middle level (+0 %) 64 See Pressemitteilungen/2013/03/PD13_088_212.html 65 Information on the indicator system, which consists of sectors and acounts, has already been published in the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2010, pages Detailed information is also provided in the project flyer bibb_a4-seiter.pdf 66 See also the recommendations of the national advisory board on Integrated reporting on training, indikatorik.bibb.de/dokumente/pdf/iabe-empfehlungen_ Dezember_2011.pdf

45 2. The training market situation in Table 9: New entries into the integrated reporting on training sectors Vocational training sector Transition sector Higher education entry qualification sector Tertiary education sector , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,083 note: The details provided here are not comparable with other information in this area in the Report on Vocational Education and Training The vocational training sector here includes the accounts of vocational training in the dual system as defined in the BBiG (recognised training occupations) including comparable vocational training (S. 3 Para. 2 No. 3 BBiG), fully-qualifying vocational training at full-time vocational schools as defined in the BBiG/HwO, fully-qualifying vocational training at full-time vocational schools not in the ambit of the BBiG/HwO, training courses at full-time vocational schools and specialist grammar schools that provide a vocational qualification and a higher education entry qualification, training in healthcare, educational or social services occupations that are regulated by Länder or national law and vocational training in the public sector (training for the intermediate level of the public service) For further details on the sectors and information on individual accounts see the Data report on the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, Chapter A 6. There may be discrepancies with earlier representations due to revisions of the data. Source: Federal Statistical Office, interim report of Integrated reporting on Training 2013 Chart 12: Shifts between the sectors (2005=100) 150 % 140 % 130 % 120 % 110 % 100 % Vocational training Transition system Higher education entry qualification Tertiary education 90 % 80 % 70 % 60 % Source: Federal Statistical Office, interim report of Integrated reporting on Training 2013

46 42 2. The training market situation in Training for the healthcare professions A total of 196,625 students were training for the healthcare professions in the 2011/2012 school year. This training is offered at healthcare profession schools and due to the differently structured federal school systems at full-time vocational schools and trade and technical schools. 67 Compared with the previous year, there was slight increase of 3,183 students (or 1.6 %) in training for the healthcare professions. What is positive is that the proportion of male to female students increased by 5.4 %. although young women still make up the majority, at 78.1 % (young men: 21,9 %). The number of students in nursing training (59,857) in creased slightly compared with the previous year (1.2 %). Numbers in nursing and paediatric nursing remained almost the same (0.2 %). This shows that vocational training in nursing and paediatric nursing is still attractive, even in the context of an increasing number of academic training options. The total number of students training in geriatric nursing grew again compared with the previous year to a total of 55,966 (7.7 %). The number of new geriatric nursing trainees did however fall compared with the 2010/2011 school year (20,424 new trainees, 6.6 % fewer than in the 2010/2011 school year). After the expiry of special temporary regulations on full financing for three-year retraining in geriatric nursing in 2009 and 2010 (as part of Economic Stimulus Package II), and after an initial substantial increase in new trainees, a slight fall in new trainees was recorded. Numbers of trainees in training to be geriatric care assistants, which is subject to individual Länder regulation, also fell slightly to 6,221 (1.8 %). On the 13 th of December 2012, the Federal and Länder governments and industry associations launched a comprehensive package of measures, the Aged Care Training and Qualification Campaign, which aims to greatly increase the number of trainees entering geriatric nursing training. One main measure agreed on in the Campaign was implemented with the passing of a law to strengthen initial and continuing vocational training (Gesetz zur Stärkung der beruflichen Aus- und Weiterbildung) on the 13 th of March 2013, which stipulates that those training to be geriatric nurses from the 1 st of April 2013 to 31 st of March 2016 will also train for three years and so be eligible to have their training fully financed by employment offices and Jobcenters. At the same time, the new law increases the possibilities of shortening the duration of training in this sector. Increasing numbers of students are training to be an emergency services assistant (5.1 %), medical-technical radiology assistant (0.9 %) and podiatrist (2.9 %). Numbers of students training to be a pharmaceuticaltechnical assistant (3.5 %) and medical-technical laboratory assistant (5.8 %) have however continued to fall and there were fewer training in midwifery/maternal care nursing (0.9 %), in ergotherapy (4.2 %), speech therapy (2 %) and physiotherapy (2.3 %). As in the previous year, there were considerable falls in numbers of those training to be dietary assistants (16.2 %). Numbers of trainees in the areas of massage and medical hydrotherapy also declined steeply (by 14 %). It can be assumed that a trend in the above occupations already emerging last year, with many of those interested in training increasingly aspiring to an academic qualification, has intensified. Occupational and training policy developments in the care and nursing area The challenges facing German society are increasingly shaped by demographic change and thus directly affect the very closely related demands on nursing and care. In no other area are familial, labour market and training-related and social changes as marked as in (geriatric) care: The number of people needing care is increasing. At the same time, there are increasingly few school leavers available for training More and more family members are taking on a carer role as well as working. Support from social networks and socially involved people is increasingly important. There is an increased need for professional care and nursing. This means that the training and occupational field of care and nursing is facing major challenges. At the same time, these involve special opportunities for change and further development in occupational and training policy in care and nursing area. 67 Tables showing the trend in schoolleaver numbers in individual occupations can be found in the data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013.

47 2. The training market situation in Geriatric care is one of the strongest growing service industries and so offers secure employment prospects. The number of qualified geriatric care staff in ambulant health care services and nursing homes increased from 1999 to 2011 by 91 % to about 210,000 and the number of all employees working in geriatric care grew in the same period by around 53 % to 952,000 (Care and nursing statistics 2011). Developments in general nursing are similar, if not similarly dynamic. Around 136,000 registered general nurses and 12,000 registered general and paediatric nurses were working in ambulant health care services and nursing homes in Those working in the three nursing and care sectors (geriatric nursing, general nursing and general and paediatric nursing), at 358,000, therefore make up around 38 % of all persons employed in geriatric nursing. In the 2010/2011 school year, about 46,000 people began training in the three nursing and care sectors: a peak value among all training occupations. Demands on care and nursing staff have also changed in recent years. While more medical procedures need to be provided in nursing homes, the number of old and very old people in medical health care institutions is increasing steeply. The current differentiation of nursing and care sectors according to patient age will not keep pace with developments in supply structures and the demands on the professional nursing and care of the future. New potential and prospects could be opened up if the formal separation of the three occupations could be overcome. It is important to be able to deploy qualified nursing staff universally and flexibly and vital that they gain the widest possible qualification profile in training. It would be advantageous even now for hospitals to employ more geriatric nurses and carers in some areas. Registered general nurses have been employed in inpatient care facilities for a long time and both occupational groups are present in ambulant healthcare services. Today s occupational legislation and actual practice also show that the qualifications of skilled nursing staff overlap in certain areas and different groups often carry out the same tasks. Consolidating nursing and care training could improve the attractiveness of this occupational field, because it would result in more opportunities for professional development for those completing this training. This is a constantly developing professional field, one that will continue in future to be characterised by the catchphrases subsequent specialisation, further training, lifelong learning. Given current demographic developments, demand for qualified care and nursing staff will continue to grow. The number of benefits recipients in the social care insurance system alone will have increased by 40 % to 3.2 million by 2030, proportionate to the benchmark year of At the same time, the number of young people available to enter the training market will decline sharply in future. There is already a national shortage of qualified (geriatric) nursing staff and it will only grow in future if prompt, decisive countermeasures are not taken. A new direction is therefore required to increase care and nursing training s attractiveness for young and older people, improve occupational conditions for qualified care and nursing staff, and keep existing skilled staff working in this professional field. A new balance nursing and care must be created between training, employment and specialist policy in nursing and care so as to provide greater awareness of the current various qualification options in the care and nursing field, to make better use of these options and do justice to profession care and nursing. The precondition for this is a closer interlinking of training policy development at the Federal and Länder government levels resulting in a transparent and generally recognised tiered system of qualification options. This would enable anyone wanting to work in the care and nursing area to enter the profession at a qualification level appropriate to them. Such qualification paths do exist, but federal structures often make it hard to get a clear overview of them. The Länder are responsible for lower-level qualification measures and one and two year training for the occupations of medical orderly or care assistant. The Federal Government is responsible for regulating the specialist health care professions, including training in the three care and nursing occupations. The Länder are in charge of the overall area of continuing and further training. In order to meet the need for nursing and care staff in the long term, ensure quality and keep care and nursing occupations attractive in future, the options that training, training for adults without adequate qualifications and continuing and further training in this area offer, must be extended. It is also important in this context to improve transfer opportunities between training paths.

48 44 2. The training market situation in 2012 The Federal Government has taken fundamental and important new steps in this area, seeking to consolidate the three care and nursing occupations, geriatric nursing, general nursing and general and paediatric nursing into a new, generally-oriented care and nursing occupation. An expert Federal-Länder working group submitted some basic principles in preparation for drafting new care and nursing legislation in early March Based on their paper and accompanying expert opinion, the BMFSFJ and BMG are now jointly developing a draft government bill. Qualified care and nursing staff trained for three years at a full-time vocational school will remain the most important and strongest pillar of this professional field in future, but there will also be a need for academically trained care and nursing staff. This occupational area should be extended in parallel, but it cannot and should not replace vocational training. As well as the many current measures for securing and increasing a basic supply of skilled geriatric care and nursing staff, the Federal Ministry of the Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, with the participation of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as well as Länder governments and industry associations, started an aged care training and qualification offensive in The goal of this initiative is to strengthen initial and continuing vocational trade in geriatric care and nursing and increase the attractiveness of this employment and occupational field (see Chapter 3.1.5).

49 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Vocational training policy measures and programmes Chapter 3 provides an overview of the main vocational training policy measures and programmes with which the Federal Government is reacting to the need for action identified in Chapter strengthen dual training, intensify careers orientation, ensure the maturity of prospective trainees, facilitate transitions into training, and secure training qualifications and a supply of young skilled staff The Federal Government has already improved the training situation in recent years with a series of measures for modernising vocational training, which were adapted and continued in These measures have been integrated and coordinated and their implementation has been supported by other vocational training actors, such as the social partners National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Staff Key data: Period: Internet: Training policy goals: Securing adequate training and qualification opportunities for all young people willing able to undergo training is a declared goal of the Federal Government. This applies equally to both high-achieving and lower-achieving young people, because only with both will Germany s demand for skilled staff be secured. In June 2004, the Federal Government together with central German business associations therefore agreed to set up the National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Staff to promote more commitment to training and additional efforts by public authorities. In October 2010, the Training Pact was extended by another four years with new focuses. The Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (Kultusministerkonferenz KMK) and Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration were included in the Pact as new partners with their own contributions to make. One important fact in the Pact s continuing development was that the starting situation has fundamentally changed since Instead of a shortage of training places, there is now a shortage of applicants in some industries and regions due to demographic developments. At the same time, a considerable number of applicants still do not who immediately succeed in making the transition from school into training, among them unplaced applicants from previous years, young people from migrant backgrounds and socially and educationally disadvantaged young people and those with disabilities. Working under the motto of making use of all potential, the extended Training Pact will offer these young people in particular increased opportunities to access vocational training. This will entail improving the maturity of school leavers completing secondary general and intermediate school at an early stage, providing more intensive support for low-achieving young people, opening up effective qualification courses and prospects to young people in the transition system and integrating young people from migrant backgrounds into training. The new Pact will tackle a wide range of measures, cen tral among them the BMBF initiative Educational chains leading to vocational qualifications ( Abschluss und Anschluss Bildungsketten bis zum Ausbildungsabschluss ), a com prehensive bundle of measures aimed to qualitatively improve the transition from school into dual training, and the 10,000 company-based introductory courses a year designed especially for young people in need of extra support (EQ Plus) that industry has promised to provide. To secure a supply of skilled workers, the new Pact agreement also aims to attract more high-achieving young people into company-based vocational training. To this end, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and BMWi started the Berufliche Bildung praktisch unschlagbar ( Vocational training practically unbeatable ) information campaign in November Its goal is to highlight the attractiveness of dual training and the diverse opportunities offered by vocational training to a wider public and address high-achieving young people in particular. The Pact partners again submitted an interim review of their activities in 2012 and the main results of their funding and support measures are described below. The Federal Government systematically reviewed Federal programmes for funding and supporting young people, modernising its instruments in the area of labour promotion law, orienting them towards individual needs for action and strengthening preventative measures. Career start coaches now supporting students at around 2,000 schools from their penultimate year of school nationally to successfully manage the transition from school into training as defined under

50 46 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes the terms of Volume III of the German Social Code (SGB III) and the Educational chains initiative. Career start coaching and intensified (expanded) careers orientation measures, after being trialed as models, were established as standard instruments. The vocational orientation programme (Be rufs orientierungsprogramm BOP) was continued at its high standard and the number of intermediaries involved in targeted placement was doubled. To increase the participation rate of young people from migrant backgrounds, the Federal Government held national and regional training conferences, which were also specifically designed to address parents and involved the Federal Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration, as well as youth forums with young people from migrant backgrounds as part of the Jobstarter programme. One positive achievement has been the reduction in the number of young people who applied for training in previous years (previously unplaced applicants) by the end of September 2012 by 3.3 %. Yet many lower achieving young people are still not successfully directly entering training. In this context, the Training Pact Partners adopted the joint declaration, Targeted support of young people at the transition into in-company training in November It aims to better coordinate the diverse range of support offered in the transition system and bundle measures where this would be beneficial. The overall goal is to integrate young people quickly into training and guide them towards a vocational qualification. Company-based pre-training measures should also be more widely available to young people who need special support. Industry s voluntary committment to creating new training places and the recruitment of new companies to provide training also continued in A total of 69,100 new training places were created in 2012 (2011: ) and 41,660 companies (2011: 43,600) provided training for the first time. By the end of the subsequent placement action, the number of unplaced applicants was reduced to 7,700, although only half the young people invited to participate in the subsequent placement action accepted the invitation. The Pact partners appeal to young people to inform themselves about the many offers of help available, such as the more than 10,000 introductory training (EQ) places and EQ-Plus places for young people in need of extra support. The Federal Administration also more than fulfilled its training obligations in 2012, with a training quota of 7.5 % of its employees subject to social insurance contributions, again above the commitment it made in the Pact of at least 7 % (2011: 7.6 %) Measures and programmes for improving careers orientation and the maturity young people need for training, and individual mentoring of young people The Educational chains leading to vocational qualifications ( Abschluss und Anschluss Bildungsketten bis zum ausbildungsabschluss ) initiative Key data: Period: Funding volume: 460 million EUROs (including the career start coaching special programme, potential analysis, careers orientation programme and VerA) Internet: Training policy goals: The goals of the BMBF s Educational chains leading to vocational qualifications ( Abschluss und Anschluss Bildungsketten bis zum Ausbildungsabschluss ) initiative, an integral part of the National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Staff 2010 to 2014, are to comprehensively ensure young people s success in education and training, prevent dropouts, and the successive development of a structured and coherent funding and support policy in the transition system by Federal and Länder governments. Results of the Federal funding and support: To achieve these goals, the BMBF has integrated various programmes and activities focused on the transition from school into dual training into the initiative, in parti cular the Vocational orientation in inter-company vocational training centres and comparable institutions ( Berufsorientierungsprogramm in überbetrieblichen und vergleichbaren Berufsbildungsstätten BOP), the training structural programme JOBSTARTER, JOBSTARTER CONNECT and Vocational Qualification Perspective (Perspektive Berufs abschluss). The initiative is accompanied by the voluntary mentoring of young people in the Verhinderung von Ausbildungsabbrüchen (VerA) (preventing training dropouts) and coach@school initiatives. An accompanying Federal-Länder group of representatives from all the Länder and the Federal government ministries of education and cultural affairs discussed the initiative s structural elements, instruments and topics and set a long-term agenda on topics such as careers orientation, career start coaching, potential analyses, voluntary coaching and involving companies. The Federal and Länder governments then worked out agreements on quality standards and a consistent implementation of instruments. There was also a transfer of successful individual Länder concepts beyond Länder borders. The accompanying group has thus made a major contribution to ensuring more synergy and efficiency in structuring measures. The BMBF has also concluded bilateral Federal-Länder agreements on the general anchoring of

51 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 47 Educational chains instruments in standard systems with the Länder of Hessen, Thuringia, Baden-Wurttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia and negotiations are continuing with other Länder. The Federal government s objective (in coordination with the Länder) is to expand the initiative to more schools and establish the instruments in the long term. An Educational Chains service office ( Servicestelle Bildungs ketten ) was set up with the BIBB to provide accompanying research and public relations for the initiative. The service office coordinates exchanges of ideas and experience among participating actors and transfers best practice to other areas. At the practical level, the service office designed event formats with topics corresponding with the accompanying Federal-Länder group s agenda. Since May 2011, it has held an open-space event, a conference for young people and eight regional conferences, reaching around 1,900 actors in various education and training contexts. From 2012, the events have also had a specific regional and thematic focus. The career start coaches special programme Training policy goals: In 2010 the BMBF started the career start coaches special programme (Sonderprogramm Berufseinstiegsbegleitung Bil dungs ketten) 68 as part of the wider initiative. By 2014, around 1,000 full-time career start coaches will be working at over 1,000 schools to individually support young people in their development, in the process of choosing an occupation and in the transition into company-based training through to final qualification. This is done based on a potential analysis. Results of the Federal funding and support: 917 career start coaches (or full-time equivalent) are now working at 1,070 schools, 12.8 % of them schools for students with special needs. The special programme supplements the existing German Social Code (SGB III) instruments of intensive careers orientation and career start coaching under the terms of S. 421s of the SGB III and S. 49 of the SGB III. The programme begins in grade 7 with a potential analysis, which includes the student s skills and talents outside school. Since 2011, up to 60,000 students have participated annually in potential analyses. The potential analyses are based on consistent quality standards for providers of measures set by the BMBF in agreement with the Länder. They identify the young people s strengths, weaknesses and form a starting point for further individual support and mentoring. Career start coaches then mentor students in need of extra support and develop individual support plans. Practically-relevant careers orientation begins in grade The career start coaches mentor up to 30,000 students in need of extra support over several years. In the new ESF funding period from 2014, the plan is to co-finance career start coaching at schools in the pilot project as defined in S. 421s of the SGB III and at Educational Chains Initiative schools and expand it to more schools using Euro pean Social Fund funding allocated by the Federal Government (see the section on career start coaching). Vocational orientation in inter-company vocational training centres and comparable institutions (Berufsorientierungsprogramm des BMBF in überbetrieb lichen und vergleichbaren Berufsbildungsstätten BOP) Key data: Period: Pilot project, April 2008 to June 2010; since then unlimited Funding since 2008: approx. 220 million EUROs Funding volume in 2013: 70 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The Vocational orientation in inter-company vocational training centres and comparable institutions (Berufs orientierungs programm in überbetriebliche and vergleichbare Berufsbildungsstätten BOP) is part of the Educational chains initiative and offers Grade 7 students a potential analysis followed by two weeks of practical work experience in a vocational training institution workshop in Grade 8. The programme aims to give students studying for an upper secondary school qualification as their highest general education school qualification an initial insight into everyday life in training in at least three different occupational areas and interest them in dual training. This should help young people to better recognise their strengths and aptitudes and chose a company work experience placement appropriate to their individual abilities. The programme is designed to help young people choose an occupation that is right for them, facilitate the transition from school into training and improve the maturity they need to successfully undergo training. Results of the Federal funding and support: The BMBF has had a very positive response to this programme from participating young people and their parents as well as from industry and schools. Trainers see it as an opportunity for the targeted placing of young people in company work experience and small and medium-sized enterprises can get to know young skilled staff at an early stage. 68 See also einstiegsbegleiter.pdf 69 See also

52 48 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes The careers orientation programme started on the 1 st of April By end of 2012, the BIBB, which manages the programme for the BMBF, had approved measures for around 450,000 young people. In coming years the programme will be open to about 120,000 young people annually. To further improve the quality of careers orientation measures and allow for better planning for providers and schools, the BMBF has reformed the guidelines and now prescribes a series of quality standards that providers must meet. 70 The Länder have been offered special agreements supporting a general introduction of careers orien tation measures through a Länder concept. BA careers counselling and orientation measures As part of their regular support services, the Federal Employ ment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit BA) offers com prehensive support in the careers orientation process for all young people. These are regulated by the German Social Code (SGB III) and have been adapted as part of the wider reform of instruments. Careers counselling Federal Employment Agencies (Agenturen für Arbeit) are the point of contact for careers guidance as regulated by the German Social Code (S. 30 SGB III). Careers counselling includes the provision of advice and information on career choices, occupations and their requirements. Individual counselling oriented towards a persons interests and abilities is offered. Jobcenters can also offer these services. Careers orientation Careers orientation is a mandatory statutory benefit under the terms of S. 33 SGB III and includes talks at schools, information events and lectures, career choice workshops, media services (e. g. planet-beruf; abi, Berufe.TV, BERUF AKTUELL, Studien- und Berufswahl, BERUFENET, KURSNET) and Internet services for young people seeking information independently. Jobcenters can also offer these services. Intensive (expanded) careers orientation measures Key data: Regular support under SGB III, S. 48 (until the 31 st of December 2012 plus S. 130) Funding volume in 2012 (SGB III and II): 59 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The more preventative orientation of labour market policy pursued by the BA in recent years is being consistently 70 See continued. The passing of the Act to improve chances of integration into the labour market (Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Eingliederungschancen am Arbeitsmarkt) on the 1 st of April 2012 aims to ensure that the particular requirements of school students with special educational needs are specifically taken into account in designing measures. Theses students need special careers orientation and help in preparing for a careers choice while still at school, so they should be intensively and comprehensively supported in developing their vocational prospects. The option of extending measures beyond a period of four weeks and undergoing them during classes (S. 130 SGB III from the 31 st of December 2012), was permanently included in S. 48 of the SGB III from the 1 st of January Results of the funding and support: The greater flexibility of intensive (expanded) careers orientation measures has proven their value. Establishing this funding and support instrument in this context will strengthen the preventative effects of careers orientation and support the Training Pact goals. Around 12,966 young people participated in Federal Employment Agencies (Agenturen für Arbeit) and Jobcenters careers orientation measures in Careers orientation as part of the Initiative Inklusion funding programme Key data: Period: Funding volume: 40 million EUROs from the national rehabilitation fund (Ausgleichsfonds) Internet: Training policy goals: Education and qualification are of vital importance for participation in working life. Young people with disabilities need special support and funding. Their needs and potential must be identified as early as possible because only then can they be successfully integrated into the labour market in the long term. One important component here is careers orientation, which must begin in good time before students leave school (in their penultimate year of school). As a measure within the Federal Government s National Action Plan to implement the United Nations Convention on People with Disabilities (NAP) the BMAS s Initiative Inklusion promotes the participation of severely disabled 71 Contains interim, estimated figures for December On the 1 st of April 2012 careers orientation measures affecting groups defined in German Social Code Volume II (SGB II) were transferred to the sole responsiblity of the BA as defined in the German Social Code Volume III (SGB III).

53 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 49 people into working life. Action Area 1 of the Initiative, careers orientation, supports the establishing and ongoing development of structures and measures to improve the careers orientation of severely disabled school students, especially those with special educational needs. The Initiative Inklusion aims to provide intensive preparations for the transition into working life for 20,000 severely disabled young people. This funding programme is designed for the Länder, which design and carry out careers orientation measures in co operation with the relevant regional directorates of the BA. Results of the Federal funding and support: The programme started in the autumn of Some Länder were able to make use of existing structures, but in most cases appropriate structures had to first be created, so many measures started later than planned. Nevertheless, by the 30 th of November 2012 around 4,400 severely disabled school students had been provided with careers orientation, mainly at special schools, with a focus on mental development. Funding was originally provided for careers orientation measures beginning in the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 school years, but the term of careers orientation measures was extended for one year at the request of the Länder, so measures beginning in the 2013/2014 school year can still be funded. In this way, three age groups or classes were reached and it can be assumed that the Initiative Inklusion aim of providing support to 20,000 students was achieved. From the 2014/2015 school year, when start-up financing from the national rehabilitation fund (Ausgleichsfonds) expires, careers orientation will have to be integrated into standard financing by the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) and the Länder. A legislative foundation for this has been laid with the amendment of S. 48 of the SGB III from the 1 st of January Careers start coaching Key data: Standard support as defined in the German Social Code (SGB III, S. 49) Funding volume in 2012 (SGB III): 53.3 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: Careers start coaching provides individual and continuous support to students in general education schools who need it to manage the transition from school into vocational training, usually from their penultimate year through to the first half year of careers start coaching or, if they do not immediately make the transition, up to 24 months after they leave school. Careers start coaching has been trialed at around 1,000 schools in the pilot project since February The passing of the Act to improve chances of integration into the labour market (Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Eingliederungschancen am Arbeitsmarkt) on the 1 st of April 2012 established careers start coaching as a funding and support instrument, while at the same time introducing a third-party co-financing requirement of 50 % of total costs. The BMAS has guaranteed co-financing for careers start coaching at schools in the pilot project for measures beginning in the two penultimate classes of the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 school years. Measures started in the second half of the school year on the 1 st of February Co-financing was provided out of additional Federal education and training measure funds within a 12 billion-euro education and research programme. The Federal government plans to co-finance careers start coaching with European Social Fund financing from the start of the new ESF funding period, starting in Results of the funding and support An average of 34,028 students were provided with careers start coaching support in Around 28 % of participants were in employment subject to social security contributions (integration rate) six months after completing the measure. 74 This funding instrument has been continuously evaluated since 2010 and the interim annual reports can be downloaded from the BMAS website. 75 The Arena4You careers orientation initiative Key data: Period: to Funding volume, total of 1.33 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The Arena4You careers orientation initiative trialed the provision of careers information and orientation measures with students in a non-school place of learning a sports stadium. The provision and implementation of careers orientation services offered an opportunity to set up innovative training networks and new development possibilities for partners in this cooperative venture. The topic of Event planning and implementation in stadiums provided a thematic framework, a clear starting point for a wide range of occupations and links to familiar aspects and sustainably maintained the profile of the services on offer. Adaptation 72 See also the careers start coaches special programme (Sonderprogramm Berufseinstiegsbegleitung) 73 Contains interim, projected figures for December Period under review March 2011 to February See: Forschungsberichte/fb414-berufseinstiegsbegleitung.html

54 50 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes of the concept of learning and work assignments offered action-oriented and motivating access to the world of work, fitting in with young people s different learning types. Results of the Federal funding and support: The Arena4You project reached 108 schools of all forms special needs, secondary general, comprehensive, intermediate and grammar schools over its project period. The eastern Westphalia-Lippe (Ostwestfalen-Lippe OWL) region was focus of the pilot project, with 90 schools there participating. In April ,000 students were reached, participating in Arena4You careers orientation project weeks in the stadium and events area. A total of almost 7,000 students were reached. Implementation of careers orientation measures in sports stadiums was developed by the project s overall manager, gpdm Gesellschaft für Projektierungs- und Dienst leistungsmanagement mbh Paderborn, and also involved careers orientation teachers from participating schools and stadium and events experts. Implementation and development was technically supported by the BIBB and scientifically evaluated by the University of Tubingen. Careers orientation measures in sports stadiums were trialed successfully with the Arena4You careers orientation initiative concept and passed the practical test. The concept s core modules methodical-didactical approach to learning and work assignments, their adaptability to various school forms and broad applicability all proved successful. Beyond its pilot eastern Westphalia-Lippe region, the Arena4you concept was also implemented in Hamburg, Leipzig, Hanover, Cologne, Munich, Hoffenheim, Mannheim, Frankfurt and Offenbach. Implementation in these regions was carried out by training partners. Girls Day Key data: Period: Funding volume: 1.96 million EUROs, ESF co-financed Internet: Training policy goals: Girls Day aims to motivate young girls and women to take on vocational training or a course of study and subsequent careers in occupations that they may have hitherto rarely considered. National Girls Day is usually held on the fourth Thursday in April. Every year on this day, technical companies, com panies with technical departments and training programmes, universities and research centres open their doors to girls in the 5 th to 10 th grade at school, giving them insights into the world of work through a diverse range of events and opportunities to make contacts with those responsible for traineeships and personnel at an early stage. Results of the Federal funding and support: With its national orientation and regular date, Girls Day bundles individual regional initiatives and has achieved a uniquely broad impact. Since the action started in 2001, more than 1.2 million girls have participated nationally in almost 80,000 events. Every annual Girls Day is accompanied by scientific research. Over 95 % of participants surveyed in 2012 found the day very good or good, as did over 85 % of companies. One in three girls wanted to go on to do a traineeship or begin training in an occupation they had discovered on a Girls Day. Companies reported similar success. 27 % of companies that participated in Girls Day before 2012 had since received applications from former Girls Day participants and more than half of the companies (60 %) had employed the applicants. In terms of the total number of participating companies, this is 16 % or one in six companies. After twelve years of Girls Days, the Federal funding is showing successful results. Not only has the image of technical occupations improved, but companies have developed more awareness of gender equity and increased their commitment to encourage young women to enter technical occupations. The successful Girls Day concept has increasingly attracted international attention and 13 other countries have now held similar Days based on the German model. Boys Day Key data: Period: Funding volumes: a total of 3.12 million EUROs, ESF co-financed Internet: Training policy goals: As part of the New paths for boys ( Neue Wege für Jungs ) project, a Boys Day has been held annually in April in parallel to Girls Day since Events are held without girls in and outside schools for boys from grades Boys Day gives boys chances to plan their lives and careers with new options. The central goals of Boys Day are expanding the range of occupations boys choose from, flexibilising male roles and improving boys social skills. Introductory internships open up new future prospects to boys by giving them an opportunity to find out about occupations they may previously have rarely thought about and in which they are still underrepresented. Boys Day activities concentrate particularly on early childhood

55 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 51 education, nursing, caring and social occupations, because there is a growing need for male skilled staff in these areas. Boys Day supports boys by providing them with an activity map to help them find a Boys Day activity that interest them and introduces boys to people they can contact later with job applications. Results of the Federal funding and support: The introduction of Boys Day throughout Germany focused on achieving a broad impact and greater activation for a day of activities especially for boys. Existing activities for boys are supported, given new impetus and relevant networks extended. In the first two years after its start in 2011, around 70,000 boys took part in almost 9,000 Boys Day activities. The results of an evaluation in 2012 showed that boys are open to and interested in alternative occupational and life planning. Over 90 % of the boys found Boys Day good or very good. Half of them said they had found out about an occupational area they were interested in on Boys Day. 60 % of boys had organised their participation themselves and a third of Boys Day activities in 2012 were held due to the boys own initiative, with boys proactively asking for one-day traineeships with companies. Participating companies and institutions were just as enthusiastic about Boys Day as the boys. Around 80 % of the organisations, companies and institutions that took part in Boys Day 2012 regarded it as good or very good. VerA Initiative for preventing premature training termination Key data: Period: to Funding volume: 5.9 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: VerA is a joint Initiative of the BMBF and major German business associations (The German Association of Skilled trades ZDH, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce DIHK and the Federal Association of Liberal Professions BFB) and was launched in The Senior Expert Service in Bonn (SES) carries out the initiative, which supports young people considering terminating training. VerA is based on a mentoring approach. Volunteer senior experts mentor young people who have problems in training, providing 1:1 guidance. They are trusted representatives and offer orientation and a diverse range of support, helping young people to help themselves and informing them about the standard offers of the Federal Employment Agencies (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) and Job centers. Trainees are initially accompanied in this way for one year, but this period can be extended until they successfully gain a training qualification if necessary. This service is offered all over Germany, with a coordinator, also a volunteer, active in every region. The initiative is also carried out in close cooperation with relevant authorities. Senior Experts undergo two days of training to prepare them for their tasks. Results of the Federal funding and support: By December 2012, the SES had received around 3,000 requests for mentoring, of which over 2,000 took place. More than 1,700 Senior Experts have participated in a preparatory seminar so far. The VerA initiative is currently being externally evalua ted by the Institute for Development Planning and StruCtural Research (Institut für Entwicklungsplanung und Strukturforschung) at the Universität Hannover (ies GmbH). Their findings will be published in summer in The coach@school pilot project Key data: Period: to Funding volume: 1.2 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: At the end of 2010, the Senior Expert Service (SES) launched the coach@school pilot project, which was commissioned by the BMBF and accompanies the career start coaches special programme. Volunteers help by providing independent careers orientation coaching and offering students continuous support in their everyday lives. Senior Experts attend a two-day seminar to prepare them for their role. This service is offered in Bremen, Hessen, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony for schools at which no full-time career start coaches are deployed. Up to 15 schools per Land can participate and they are chosen in coordination with the relevant Länder ministries. Up to four SES Experts work in each school, supporting students in final classes and cooperating closely with the school authorities. Integration with established initiatives with similar goals is a further aspiration of this programme.

56 52 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Measures and programmes for optimising transition management, the transition system and innovative approaches to training for adults without vocational qualifications The Vocational Qualification Perspective structural programme Key data: Period: Funding volume: 67 million EUROs, ESF co-financed Internet: Training policy goals: Through its Vocational Qualification Perspective programme, the BMBF is establishing and reinforcing effective structures to facilitate the transition from school into vocational training and promote vocational qualification of young adults without vocational qualifications in 48 regions after the end of the first round of funding in In funding priority 1, Regional transition management, 28 projects preventative funding projects to help young people attain educational and vocational qualifications for which local government was responsible were implemented. The 20 projects funded in funding priority 2, Qualifying modular training for adults with no vocational qualifications, create regional and industry-specific qualification structures to help attract skilled workers. Results of the Federal funding and support: Funding priority 1 ( Regional transition management ) Regional transition management covers all the institutions and services that prepare, accompany and carry out young people s transition from school into vocational training. Regional coordination offices have set up structures and developed processes to make the supply and demand situation in the transition system transparent, accompany decisions and ensure regional coordination of the various actors in this area by improving cooperative ventures and the work of committees. Experience from the 49 projects in the first round of funding, which ended in 2012, show that the programme has significantly improved understanding on a range of goals and measures involved in the transition system from school to work. The following effects are among those mentioned by actors in the transition system: improved coordination of decision makers in the area of vocational training increased transparency of regional consulting, support and funding services optimised careers orientation in schools, an improvement in parents efforts to support their children in making career choices and gain a recognised vocational qualification the establishing of education and training commissioners in migrants organisations, a raised awareness among companies of young people with fewer opportunities, more targeted placement in final qualifications due to precise, specific counselling, fewer young people in holding patterns and an increased proportion of secondary general school leavers in dual training. It has been shown that constant coordination at the municipal level is necessary in helping young people manage the transition from school into vocational training. As providers, independent towns and districts have the best preconditions for achieving this. Only the strong involvement of political organisations and heads of administrations will enable local authorities to play a role, with other actors in the transition system, as neutral, but committed mediators. Funding priority 2 ( Qualifying modular training for adults with no vocational qualifications ) To establish structures for training adults without vocational qualifications, targeted networking is carried out, services and training courses for adults without vocational qualifications established and expanded and the public better informed about vocational training opportunities for adults with no qualifications. The goal is to make increasing use of external examinations. Transparency in the regional funding and support landscape has been ensured through reviews of services and measures. Binding regional quality standards have been set and consistent, modularised training concepts for adults without vocational qualifications established as standard programmes in coordination with the relevant authorities, companies and other labour market stakeholders. Internetbased databases on training for adults with no vocational qualifications have been established to make it possible for these adults to evaluate training courses designed for them, sorting them according to Federal Länder, occupational areas and recognised occupational profiles. This industry and target group-specific approach has been specifically funded and supported in the programme s expansion in The industries have been selected in recognition of the need for skilled staff in the healthcare, logistics and IT sectors. Three projects in the area of geriatric care take the particular conditions in this sector into account.

57 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 53 A further goal is to strengthen regional labour markets and make a major contribution to securing a supply of skilled workers through structural improvements. As part the Unterstützung regionaler Projekte zur Nach - qualifizierung zu Fragen der Zulassung zur Externenprüfung (support for regional training projects for adults without qualifications on issues of the admission to external examinations) programme, a recommendation has been drafted in form of guidelines by the main vocational training stake holders that aims to access and make better use of the unutilised potential of specialist workers in the skilled trades. Projects in the Vocational Qualification Perspective programme have combined with industry and labour market policy stakeholders to form Länder networks in Hessen, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Thuringia to anchor training for adults with no vocational qualifications into regulatory structures as a way of attracting skilled workers at a national level. By committing and involving the relevant decision makers and actors in existing or future strategic-cooperative networks, the regions have succeeded in establishing modular vocational training structures as an important training policy instrument of their regional and industryrelated canon of funding measures. The Qualifying modular training for adults with no vocational qualifications funding priority of the Vocational Qualification Perspective programme is making a sustainable training policy contribution to promoting vocational training structures and strengthening regional labour markets and by securing a future supply of skilled staff in the project regions. JOBSTARTER CONNECT trialing nationally consistent and skills-oriented training modules Key data: Period: Funding volume: 22.1 million EUROs, ESF co-financed Internet: Training policy goals: This scheme qualifies young people able to undergo training in pre-vocational measures and unskilled and semi-skilled young adults through nationally-consistent, skills-oriented training modules, using existing training and funding structures. Documentation of the vocational skills they acquire makes the transition into company-based training easier and provides for successful vocational qualification. Training modules were originally developed as models in 14 training occupations in the dual system and an expansion to other occupational profiles is in planning. Results of the Federal funding and support: By the 31 st of January 2013, around 4,000 young people and young adults had participated in a qualification measure using training modules in a wide range of measures and qualification forms in 40 regional CONNECT projects. Experience from these projects and the results of intermediate evaluations show that the qualification training modules in the transition system, in funded training and in training for adults with no vocational qualifications represent a new quality in many model regions 76 : Improving transitions from training courses into company-based training trainees are more useful to companies due to a consistent orientation of training courses towards dual training; more transparency in the qualification process and coordination processes among participating places of learning was intensified; an intensive culture of feedback developed out of the focus on skills and output, which has a positive effect on training quality and young people s motivation; theoretical and practical learning can be more closely integrated through learning outcome-oriented curricula; meaningful and consistent documentation of the vocational skills acquired; as an element of external training management, training modules increase trainees prospects of being integrated into company-based training and having time spent in training accredited. Facilitating access to an external examination under S. 45 Para. 2 of the BBiG transparent documentation of the admissions procedure; standardised skills assessment processes (internal provider validation of qualification levels) before pre-vocational courses begin and when they end. In some regions other vocational schools joined in the trial at their own request and many projects have expanded the trials to other training courses. In the restructuring of the transition system from school into work in North-Rhine Westphalia training modules are being implemented in 76 For details on further findings from the funding see also: EKERT, E; ROTTHOWE, L; WEITERER, B: Ausbildungsbau steine Kompetenz- und Output orientierung von Bil dungs angeboten des Übergangsbereichs. In: BWP 41 (2012) 4, p

58 54 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes vocational schools as part of the school development process under the vocational college training and examination regulations (Ausbildungs- und Prüfungsordnung Berufskolleg APO-BK). Given this positive experience, the Federal Government plans to have around 20 more occupational training modules developed. The New ways into dual training heterogeneity as a chance to secure a supply of skilled staff funding priority Key data: Period: Funding volume: 7.35 million EUROs Internet: or Training policy goals: Funded by the BMBF as part of its funding and support for the development and trialing of models of innovative vocational training concepts under S. 90 Para. 3 No. 1d of the Vocational Training Act, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung BIBB) is promoting innovative ways into training, especially including the aspect of the increasing heterogeneity of young people old enough to be in training, so as to support small and medium-sized companies involved in training. In the context of other established funding measures and based on effective careers orientation, these projects are designed to fit into the vocational training system at the interface from school into training and from the transition system into company-based training. The goal is to integrate these measures into long-term funding measures and overall regional concepts, contributing to the creation of Education chains. Results of the Federal funding and support: Work began on the model trials in the spring of The first positive review of the starting phase was presented at the Arbeitsforum in November 2011 in Stuttgart. Initial results from this funding priority, a first analysis of the conditions for success and possible recommendations for action were scheduled for release by mid After a successful start in the spring of 2011, a series of instruments that were developed and trialed to support SMEs help disadvantaged young people make the transition into dual training are now available. The BIBB s annual report clearly shows its success and provides initial policy recommendations for action to support the target group of SMEs. The New ways into dual training heterogeneity as a chance to secure a supply of skilled staff funding priority has enabled existing standard support instruments and concepts to support the transition from school or the transition system into dual training to be used to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and create Education chains, especially for disadvantaged young people, a basis was created for the establishment of successful products regionally after BMBF funding ends, the preconditions for a successful transition from school and the transition system into dual training described and analysed in the context of the increasing hetero geneity of young people, especially disadvantaged young people (focus on young people from a migrant background) and appropriate instruments and methods developed and initial policy recommendations for action for the target group of SMEs and for the entire field of action of the transition from school into dual training were derived, formulated and integrated into the political and scientific discussion. The JUGEND STÄRKEN initiative Key data: Period: Funding volume: 529 million EUROs; ESF and Federal funding Internet: Training policy goals: The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens and Youth (BMFSFJ) JUGEND STÄRKEN initiative and its 4 programmes (the 3 ESF programmes Schulverweigerung Die 2. Chance (Second chance for truants), Kompetenzagenturen (Competence agencies), JUGEND STÄRKEN: Aktiv in der Region (Active in the region) and Jugendmigrationsdienste (Youth Migration Service), financed by the Federal Child and Youth Plan (Kinder- und Jugendplan)) all focus on young people with and without migrant backgrounds, who because of disadvantage are not or no longer reached by regular services school, vocational training, basic income and employment support (under the terms of the German Social Code (SGB), S. 13 of SGB VIII, youth social work, and SGB II and SGB III). These activities will reinforce both the assistance provided to individuals and local government youth services. Newest developments: The review of the JUGEND STÄRKEN: Aktiv in der Region model programme at its halfway point in the summer of 2012 was positive. The 35 model municipalities have developed many precise solutions and innovative concepts for closing local funding and support gaps, working together with stakeholders such as Jobcenters, employment offices

59 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 55 (Agen turen für Arbeit), schools and companies. Since the programme began about 100 new projects have been started and more than 2,500 young people reached. The brochure Jeden jungen Menschen mitnehmen! 77, which was published in July 2012, presents exemplary approaches and factors for success. From early 2012, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens and Youth gained the commitment of the Wirtschaftsjunioren Deutschland (WJD) (Young German Entreprenuers) for disadvantaged young people in the JUGEND STÄRKEN networks through its supplementary JUGEND STÄRKEN: Junge Wirtschaft macht mit! (Young entrepreneurs get involved) project. Working together with social work experts from JUGEND STÄRKEN organisations, the young entrepreneurs offer targeted, low entry-level services at a local level to disadvantaged young people, providing them with practice-based insights into the world of work. At the JUGEND STÄRKEN trifft junge Wirtschaft! conference in October 2012 initial examples of successful cooperation between industry and youth social workers were presented and discussed. The ESF and Federal Education, economy and employment in the local neighbourhood ( Bildung, Wirtschaft, Arbeit im Quartier BIWAQ ) programme of the Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) Key data: Period: , 2 rounds of funding Funding volume: approx. 184 million EUROs, of which 124 million EUROs was ESF funding and 60 million EURO BMVBS funding Internet: Training policy goals: The goal of this social environment-oriented labour market programme is to improve the social and vocational situation of long-term unemployed men, women and young people in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods (a project in the Social City urban development funding programme). Strengthening local economies in these areas by funding and supporting companies and entrepreneurial activities is a further focus of this programme. Results of the Federal funding and support: BIWAQ specifically targets labour market policy measures in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods to improve the qualifications and social situation of residents and thus their employment prospects, so upgrading the neighbourhood as a whole. BIWAQ Projects develop innovative interventions in programme areas that are concretely coordinated to meet local needs for action, tie in with municipalities own integrated development concepts and are linked with urban development investments. They focus on action in the areas of education and training, employment, the integration and participation of inhabitants and value creation in neighbourhoods. Cooperative ventures and network building with local social and business partners are established to secure the outcomes achieved for the long term. With the programme just past its halfway mark (its period is ) the following results have been established: The qualifications and self-respect of many participants and thus their training and labour market prospects have been improved. In the 1 st round of funding ( ), which ended on , 135 projects in 144 programme areas in 93 municipalities were funded. Most of these projects focused on young people as their main target group (about 80 %), but there was also a strong focus on longterm unemployed women and men (about 75 %). By the end of 2011, a total of 76,082 project participants had been supported, with 20,378 young people, 11,924 long-term unemployed and 2,289 employees taking part in training and qualification measures. So far, 1,607 participants have been placed in jobs in the open labour market and another 1,499 participants in training. 442 training places and 524 new jobs in the open labour market and 2,429 jobs in the voluntary services sector and publicly subsidised labour market were created and 4,087 small and very small companies were advised. In the 2 nd round of funding ( ), which started in 2011, 87 projects in 113 programme areas of urban development promotion of 61 municipalities have been funded. ESF and Federal programme to provide labour market support for those with a right to stay in Germany and refugees with access to the labour market Key data: Period: in two rounds of funding Funding volume: 29 million EUROs of BMAS funding, 46 million EUROs of ESF funding Internet: sonderprogramm bleibeberechtigte.html 77

60 56 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Training policy goals: This programme is designed to sustainably integrate people with a right to stay in Germany, refugees, young people and unaccompanied minor refugees into the labour and training market. The projects also work at the structural level with multipliers from politics and administration to ensure the inclusion and integration of this target group. Results of the Federal funding and support: In the first round of funding ( ), 43 consultancy networks were active in all Federal Länder in around 220 individual projects. Of the 10,800 participants, about 25 % were young people and young adults aged up to 25 (2,818 persons). 30 % of all the project services involved pre-vocational measures and activities for young people. Around 54 % of participants were successfully placed in work or training, in jobs subject to social insurance contributions (3,800 persons), minijobs (880 persons) and in dual training (460 persons). 35 % (around 3,600 persons) were placed in schools, qualification and further training and pre-vocational measures. The employability of 64 % of participants was improved and 70 % were motivated to actively seek work. In the first round of funding around 10,000 multi pliers were also involved in conferences, training and other project measures. The second round of funding began at the end of 2010 with 28 networks (230 individual projects) and will continue until the end of The individual results of this round will be available by mid By the end of 2011, around 11,000 persons had been reached (61 % men, 39 % women) in the second round of funding. 32 % of participants were aged under 25 and 18 % were from minority populations, with Roma/Ashkali the largest minority at 83 %. Most participants had attended school, one-fifth had had vocational training and about 14 % had begun and/or completed university studies. Half the participants can demonstrate professional experience. By December 2011 around 49 %, so just on half of all participants had been placed in employment in the open labour market or in dual training. This placement rate figure is for a third of the period of the second round of funding so it should increase, because some participants are still in measures and overall placement rates will only become apparent over the course of 2012 and Further Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) measures Pre-vocational training measures Key data: Standard funding support under the German Social Code (SGB Volume III, S.s 51 to 54) Funding volume in 2012 (SGB III) million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: Young people who need extra support are prepared for vocational training in pre-vocational training measures according to the provisions of the German Social Code (SGB III). Pre-vocational training measures aim to give participants an opportunity to assess and evaluate their skills and abilities in choosing a possible occupation, to orient themselves within a spectrum of suitable occupations and decide on an occupation. Participants are also equipped with the skills and abilities they need to start initial vocational training, so that they can be integrated into the training and labour market as sustainably as possible. This may also involve the acquisition of a secondary general school certificate or equivalent school leaving qualification. Once a need for extra support has been established, the young person can claim an allowance for basic vocational training. On the 1 st of January 2013, pre-vocational training measures with a production-oriented approach were offered as a further pre-vocational alternative based on the provisions of the German Social Code (SGB III). To do this, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) drafted an expert concept including the approaches of production schools and youth workshops and taking the legislative orientation of S. 51 of the German Social Code (SGB III) into account. This is a low entry-level, wide-ranging concept that complements general pre-vocational training measures, remedies training deficits and trains social skills. BA funding is provided only if there is at least 50 % third-party financing. The Länder are envisaged as co-financers. 80,977 young people in need of extra support took part in Federal Employment Agency (BA) pre-vocational training measures in % of participants were in jobs subject to social insurance contributions six months after completing the measure (integration rate). 79 By introducing pre-vocational training measures with a production-oriented approach, the BA has intensified its efforts to make use of additional potential to secure a supply of skilled staff. 78 Contains interim, estimated figures for December Period under review March 2011 until February 2012

61 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 57 Introductory training Key data: Standard funding support under the German Social Code (SGB III, S. 54a) Funding volume in 2012 (German Social Code SGB Volumes III and II): 50.7 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The main intention behind introductory training is to give young people with limited prospects of being placed in training for individual reasons an opportunity to acquire or enhance their vocational skills. At the same time, introductory training offers companies providing training an opportunity to get to know young people, not just in a brief job application interview, but to observe their skills and abilities in the daily work process for a period of six to twelve months. In accordance with its commitment made in the Training Pact, industry is providing 30,000 companybased introductory training places annually. Introductory training was also specially provided for young people in need of extra support, for which targeted support services, such as support for trainees during training, were used (EQ Plus). Industry is seeking to provide 10,000 such EQ-Plus places every year. Employers receive a subsidy of up to 216 EUROs monthly for the remuneration of the young person in introductory training plus a flat-rate contribution towards the total average social security insurance amount payable. Results of the funding and support: 22,304 young people began introductory training in From the 1 st of October 2011 to the 30 th of September 2012, companies provided 22,450 introductory training places, of which 4,000 were places for young people in need of extra support (EQ Plus). Company-based introductory training has been continuously evaluated since Findings from the accompanying research show that introductory training has opened doors into vocational training for unplaced applicants. 69 % of participants had entered training within six months after completing introductory training. A concluding evaluation report issued in March 2012 can be downloaded from the BMAS website Contains interim, estimated figures for December See: Forschungsberichte/fb-eq-abschlussbericht-maerz-2012.html Further measures and programmes for strengthening dual training The Berufliche Bildung praktisch unschlagbar (Vocational training practically unbeatable) information campaign Key data: Period: November 2011 until the end of 2013 Funding volume: around 9 million EUROs (half each from the BMBF and BMWi) Internet: Training policy goals: The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung BMBF) and Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie BMWi) started the Berufliche Bildung praktisch unschlagbar information campaign on the 8 th of November Its goal is to highlight dual training s attractiveness and the diverse opportunities of vocational education and training to a wider public, thereby contributing to securing a supply of young skilled staff. Measures have included the setting up of the website to inform young people, teachers, parents, employees and employers of the advantages of vocational and continuing training in the context of qualification, occupational and careers prospects. Other elements are a national poster and advertising campaign, publications and specialist events on vocational training and targeted use of social media. Three Infomobiles also travel across Germany to give all interested parties direct answers to their questions on vocational and continuing training on public squares and at trade fairs, in schools and in companies. Its high point was the WorldSkills occupational skills competition in Leipzig, held in the summer of 2013 with funding from the BMBF. The National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Staff has provided major impetus for the Berufliche Bildung praktisch unschlagbar information campaign. The Federal Government and industry have agreed to initiate joint high-profile activities to strengthen vocational training and specifically attract high-achieving young people into dual training. The information campaign is therefore also supported by trade and industry associations. Results of the Federal funding and support: In the spring of 2012, a competition for trainees to design the three Infomobiles was launched. 180 participants submitted 72 entries. From May to November 2012, the Infotour visited over 30 cities and made around 90 stops all over Germany, informing over 54,000 visitors about vocational training. The information campaign s partners also participated in the Infotour, with more than 150 local Chambers of Trade and Industry (IHKs), Chambers of

62 58 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Crafts (HWKs), employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit), com panies, schools and associations were involved. More content was added to the existing campaign website, as were videos and games. The site now offers over 100 articles and there have been over 77,000 visits to the website and its 300,000 activities. These measures were accompanied by a media campaign focusing on the Infotour (to start in May in Berlin and concentrate on the North-Rhine Westphalia region in September). Around 250 people took part in the training and further training event in November The JOBSTARTER training structural programme Key data: Period: Funding volume: 125 million EUROs, ESF co-financed Internet: Training policy goals: Through its JOBSTARTER training for the future training structure programme, the BMBF is supporting innovation and structural development in vocational training. The programme is planned so that it can flexibly and actively respond to current developments with variable funding priorities. Results of the Federal funding and support: Because it is a learning training structure programme, JOBSTARTER has constantly adapted to the training market s changing needs, from its start in 2006 until today. In the programme s early years, its main goal was to increase the number of company-based training places. With around 62,600 training places created and 43,400 young people placed in training nationally (as of January 2013), the more than 280 regional JOBSTARTER projects contributed substantially to achieving this goal. What is particularly noteworthy is that 38,500 of these training places represent extra training possibilities. These places were opened up in companies that were providing training for the first time, increasing their training activities, starting training again after a longer break, or offering training in a new or a reorganised occupation. The training market situation has changed in most regions of Germany in recent years. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular are increasingly experiencing problems in filling the training places they offer. At the same time, many young people still end up in the transition system. These changes to the training market were taken into account in the programme s development and other target groups, such as high-achieving young people, focused on as potential applicants for dual training, by developing dual courses of study or additional qualifications. Lower-achieving young people or those experiencing more difficult training conditions are also taken into account in the JOBSTARTER projects. Innovative approaches are being trialed and implemented, such as collaborative training, consistent national training modules, part-time vocational training, the accrediting of previous vocational training as part of a training course (S. 7 of the BBiG) or admission to a final examination after completion of a training course in a vocational school or other vocational training organization (S. 43 Para. 2 of the BBiG). In future too, the JOBSTARTER programme will deal with the situation and development of the training market and improve regional training structures through networking and projects. This programme will be continued in the next ESF funding period. The programme s concept is currently being developed. Activities are responding to two central megatrends in the ongoing development of vocational training: equivalence, accreditation and transfer opportunities in and between training systems and modernisation and innovation in vocational training The three funding streams in the 6 th round of JOBSTARTER funding, whose projects will start in September 2013, are oriented towards these trends and their priorities, improvement of the transition into training making use of all potential skilled staff integration of training and advanced training aim to address current problems and central areas in company-based vocational training. Part-time vocational training in JOBSTARTER JOBSTARTER promotes part-time training through project work and public relations. 11 projects advise companies and young people, create new part-time training places and anchor them in training structures by networking all regional stakeholders. By December 2012, 274 part-time training places had been created and young people with family responsibilities provided with vocational prospects. The main challenges facing part-time training are securing financing and childcare. This form of training is also not well known enough among young people or companies, so information and awareness-raising measures are required here.

63 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 59 The JOBSTARTER programme office helps raise the profile of part-time training among vocational training stakeholders and brings good-practice examples to a wider public through lectures, workshops, conferences and specialist publications. There is strong demand for these publications. KAUSA centres on young people from a migrant background In the JOBSTARTER KAUSA, der Koordinierungsstelle Ausbildung bei Selbstständigen mit Migrationshintergrund (Training coordination office for self-employed workers from a migrant background) programme, the focus in 2012 was on increasing the participation of young people from a migrant background in training. The KAUSA youth forum was held for the first time at four locations (Mannheim, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin) with regional partners with the goal of increasing empowerment under the motto Zeig die Stärken, die du hast (Show the strengths you have). In these workshops young people from a migrant background reviewed their particular strengths and occupational goals with expert guidance, met representatives from companies and their trainees, visited companies and prepared the contents of the concluding training conference. Participants developed shared ideas on improving entries into dual training, which were collated in a Book of Ideas. KAUSA s central goal of increasing the participation of company owners from migrant backgrounds in training, was discussed in the KAUSA Ausbildung und Integration (Training and Integration) expert forum with migrant organisations and other network partners, and ideas on securing a supply of skilled staff were exchanged. The brochure Wir machen mit! Ausbildereignungsseminare für Migrant/innen on instructor aptitude seminars for migrants, was created for prospective trainers and training providers. It describes experiences and concept ideas for preparing skilled staff from migrant backgrounds for their instructor aptitude examination. The KAUSA Media Prize was awarded for the third time in Endowed with 30,000 EUROs, it is awarded to young journalists who contribute to differentiated reporting on the various education and training paths of migrants in Germany. The prize was awarded in December 2012 in Berlin. Training place programme for eastern Germany (Ausbildungsplatzprogramm Ost APO) Key data: Period: (successor programme of the Ge meinschafts initiative Ost, which was funded from1993 to 1995) BMBF funding volume for 2012: 9 million EUROs and the same amount in Länder funding (partly co-financed by the ESF) Internet: Training policy goals: To compensate for the lack of in-company training places of recent years, this special programme for eastern Länder subsidised additional training places for unplaced applicants that were not in companies but in closely-related settings. An average of 13,550 EUROs was provided for each training place, of which the Federal Government paid a non-repayable amount of 6,775 EUROs to the Länder. Training was funded either in recognised occupations as defined in the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz BBiG) or the Crafts Code (Handwerksordnung HWO) or for a school-based training course that leads to a vocational qualification under the terms of Federal or Länder legislation. Results of the Federal funding and support: This non-company training place programme for young people who are disadvantaged in the market place was a centrepiece of training funding and support in eastern Länder from the early 1990s. An agreement between Federal and Länder governments provided additional training places for young people registered as unplaced training place applicants with the BA or other organisations providing basic social welfare under the German Social Code (SGB Volume II) just before the beginning of the measure. The number of training places funded was negotiated annually (for the last time in April 2009) taking demographic and economic developments in eastern Länder including Berlin into account. Given these developments, the number of training places was further reduced to 5,000. The estimated BMBF budget for the 2012 budget year was 9 million EUROs. Since the special programme began in 1996, about 188,000 extra training places have been provided for unplaced young people in eastern Länder with a funding volume of over 2.55 billion EUROs provided and a considerable contribution made to easing the training place market in eastern Länder. As agreed on with the Länder, the programme expires in 2013.

64 60 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Targeted trainee placement for companies willing to train Key data: Period: 2007 until An extension beyond 2013 is currently being sought. Funding volume: 2012: 7.9 million EUROs (2.9 million EUROs Federal funding and 5 million EUROs ESF funding). Funding recipients also pay a 20 % share (1.97 million EUROs). Forecast funding volume for 2013: 8.2 million EUROs, of which 3 million EUROs is Federal funding and 5.2 million EUROs ESF funding. Extra 20 % share paid by funding recipients, 2.05 million EUROs. Internet: Navigation/Foerderrecherche/suche.html?get=25f90ac32a57 b3de e ;views;document&doc=9547 Training policy goals: Assisted by European Social Fund (ESF) funding, the Federal Ministry of Economic and Technology (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie BMWi) funds and supports the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises by helping them recruit suitable trainees and ensure that their need for skilled staff is met. The project offers companies consulting on the filling of training places, a pre-selection of suitable applicants and the holding of selection interviews with potentially suitable trainees by staff from chambers of trade and industry and skilled trades, chambers of the professional services and other business organisations. Efforts are currently being made to expand the programme to include trainees from other EU countries in future. The goal is to secure precisely-adapted consultation and placement services for SMEs, especially those in the skilled trades and service sectors and thereby contribute to meeting their future needs for skilled employees. Results of the Federal funding and support: From 2007 to , more than 200,000 consultations were held with companies. Around 150,000 consultations were held with young people and more than 51,500 were placed in training. targeted consultation and contacted about training places and are free to register their training places. The Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) supports the consultation and placement process for the purposes of targeted placement with a 4-phase model. This integration concept is applied comprehensively to groups defined in the German Social Code (SGB II and SGB III). A profile of the client s strengths and potential is first created together with the client, a common set of goals is identified, and a shared strategy agreed on as to how the goals can be achieved. Implementation begins with the conclusion of a binding integration agreement. This integration road map is reviewed in every interview. Support during training (Ausbildungsbegleitende Hilfen) Key data: Standard funding support as defined in the German Social Code (SGB III, S.s 74 to 80) Funding volume from the BA in 2012 (SGB III and II): 95 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: Support during training (Ausbildungsbegleitende Hilfen) aims to ensure successful training or introductory training and prevent dropouts. It can be granted as needed at the beginning of or at any time during vocational training or introductory training. Special classes and accompanying socio-educational mentoring help to overcome language and educational deficits as needed and support trainees in acquiring specialist theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Results of the funding and support: An annual average of 42,926 young people were provided with support through training or introductory training funded by employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit) and Jobcenters in This prevented dropouts, stabilised training conditions and meant that more training courses were successfully completed. 83 % of participants were in jobs subject to social insurance contributions within six months after completing the measure (integration rate). 83 Training placement pursuant to the German Social Code (SGB III and SGB II) Training placement as defined in the German Social Code (SGB III and SGB II) is a standard benefit for promoting employment and basic social security benefits for jobseekers. It is a comprehensive service offered by employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit) and Jobcenters. All young people can access these services, regardless of whether they are entitled to daily subsistence benefits under the terms of Social Code (SGB III or SGB II) or not. Employers are provided with 82 Contains interim, estimated figures for December Period under review March 2011 until February 2012

65 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 61 Non-company vocational training Key data: Standard funding support as defined in the German Social Code (SGB III, S.s 74, 76 to 80) Funding volume of the BA in 2012 (SGB III and II): 619 million EUROs Internet: Non-company vocational training is training that is provided not by a company, but by a training provider. Funding and support for non-company vocational training is essentially only available from employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit) and Jobcenters for disadvantaged young people who have not been successfully placed in vocational training not even with support through training. Efforts are made during the measure to transfer the young people into company-based vocational training. Results of the funding and support: An average of 54,014 young people took part in non-company vocational training funded by an employment office (Agenturen für Arbeit) or Jobcenter in For details on the number of newly concluded training contracts in 2012 see Chapter 2.2 on Newly concluded training contracts according to structural characteristics. 44 % of participants were in jobs subject to social insurance contributions six months after completing the measure (integration rate). 85 BAföG and basic vocational training allowance Key data: Standard funding support as defined in the Federal Training Assistance Act (Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz) and Social Code (SGB III) Internet: und Training policy goals: Financial support is provided during training and Federal Employment Agency (BA) pre-vocational training measures to overcome the economic difficulties that can stand in the way of appropriate vocational qualification, to support a more balanced training market and secure and improve occupational mobility. Results: In 2012 an average of 141,503 people undergoing vocational training and 30,639 undergoing a pre-vocational training measures were funded with a basic vocational training allowance. 84 Contains interim, estimated figures for December Period under review March 2011 until February 2012 Funding for residential homes for young people Key data: Standard funding support as defined in the German Social Code (SGB III, S.s 80a, 80b) Funding volume from the BA in 2012 (SGB III): 40 million EUROs Internet: The Act to improve chances of integration into the labour market (Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Eingliederungschancen am Arbeitsmarkt) enables the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) as of the 1 st of April 2012 to (again) meet some of the costs of structural repairs and renovations to residential homes for young people. Funding can be provided to those running homes for young people through loans or subsidies if it is necessary to balance the training market and promote vocational training. Up to 35 % of costs can be granted, or in exceptional cases up to 40 % of total costs, with a maximum of 25,000 EUROs granted for an individual home. Those running the facility or a third party also must partly meet the costs to an appropriate extent. Inter-company training centre funding (Förderung überbetrieblicher Berufsbildungsstätten ÜBS) Key data: Period: BMBF since 1973 (BMWi since the end of the 1950s) BMBF funding volume for 2012: 40 million EUROs, + BMWi (28.5 million EUROs), Länder and equity capital Internet: BMBF/BiBB BMWi/BAFA foerderung_ueberbetrieblicher_berufsbildungsstaetten/ index.html Training policy goals: ÜBS funding is provided for the long term and anchored in the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz). It pays for the modernisation of buildings and equipment that meets the latest technological and vocational educational standards. The development of ÜBS/Competence Centres into education and training providers and knowledge transfer agencies for SMEs is part of the Federal Government s qualification initiative and anchored in the coalition agreement. Integration with consultancy, information and technology transfer services is designed to reinforce their education and training remit and further develop particularly suitable ÜBS into Competence Centres (Kompetenzzentren KomZet). Joint BMBF/BMWi guidelines on funding and support for ÜBS and their further development into Competence Centres came into force on the 24 th of June They are usually funded by one Federal Ministry, depending on the predominant use of the training centre.

66 62 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes If the centre is used mainly for training, the BMBF/Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung) is responsible for their funding. If the centre focuses on continuing education and training, funding is provided by the BMWi/Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle). Results of the Federal funding and support: In 2012 the BMBF was again involved in funding an around 110 projects and the BMWi allocated further funding for 63 projects. More than two thirds of all young trainees in small and medium enterprises were trained in the dual system. ÜBS play an important role in the dual system, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition to companies and vocational schools, they supplement training with intercompany practical training courses. ÜBS not only improve the quality of training in accordance with modern standards, they also create the prerequisites for companies that have so far not engaged in training to offer training places. ÜBS/Komzet sustainably contribute to improving the performance and competitiveness of SMEs, especially in the skilled trades. They offer small and medium-sized enterprises customised continuing education and training courses at affordable prices, helping to secure and strengthen the supply of skilled staff in small and medium enterprises. Germany s comprehensive ÜBS network gives the country a unique infrastructure by international standards. The centres act as lighthouses in their specialist areas. Because they are equipped with the most modern technology and closely connected to companies, KomZet are able to develop new, application-oriented technologies and innovative products and through initial and continuing vocational training qualification measures, integrate them quickly into company practice, so they mediate between applied research and practice. Inter-company vocational training in the skilled trades (Überbetriebliche berufliche Bildung ÜLU) Key data: Period: since 1952 Funding volume: 45 million EUROs p.a. Internet: handwerk,did= html Training policy goals: The provision of funding for sector-wide apprentice training aims to both increase the preparedness of skilled trades firms to offer training, which such firms often provide in excess of their own needs, and ensure a consistently high quality of company-based vocational training. Results of the Federal funding and support: Dual vocational training in the skilled trades is traditionally provided in inter-company courses, which helps the usually very small skilled trades firms teach difficult and time-consuming training content. The BMWi and the Länder each pay a third of the costs of this sector-wide apprentice training. The content and duration of sector-wide apprentice training is decided on in cooperative process involving the specialist national associations and the Heinz-Piest- Institut für Handwerkstechnik at Leibniz University in Hanover. Recognition is provided by the BMWi and Länder ministries. The courses help to adapt vocational training to technical and economic developments, even out regional differences in vocational training, ensure a consistently high quality of company-based training and relieve companies of the necessity of teaching difficult and time-consuming training content. 47 million EUROs was provided to fund around 50,000 courses for 446,000 participants in Ausbildungs- und Qualifizierungsoffensive Altenpflege (Geriatric care training and qualification campaign) Key data: Period: Internet: ausbildungsoffensive.html Training policy goals: In the spring of 2011, the Federal Government, with the lead-management of the BMFSFJ and involvement of the BMAS, BMG and BMBF, started a geriatric care training and qualification campaign with the goal of bundling the forces of all the stakeholders in geriatric care in a joint initiative, agreeing on concrete measures to strengthen initial and ongoing vocational training in this sector and increasing the overall attractiveness of the vocational and employment field of geriatric nursing and care. The partners in the campaign are the participating Federal ministries, the corresponding four conferences of the relevant Länder ministries (the conference of ministers of youth and family affairs ministers, conference of ministers of labour and social welfare, conference of ministers of health and the conference of ministers of education and cultural affairs), social welfare organisations, private facility operators associations, geriatric care and nursing vocational and occupational

67 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 63 associations, third party financers, the Federal organisation of central municipal organisations (Bundesvereinigung der kommunale Spitzenverbände), the Institution for statutory occupational accident insurance and prevention in the health and welfare services (Berufsgenossenschaft für Ge sund heitsdienst und Wohlfahrtspflege), the ver.di union and the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit). Target agreements on the following fields are formulated in the agreement s 50-page text: 1. Intensifying training efforts and increasing training capacity in institutions and schools 2. Making use of the potential for training adults with no vocational qualifications in geriatric care and nursing 3. Promotion of ongoing training by employment offices ( Agenturen für Arbeit) and Jobcenters 4. Further developing geriatric care and nursing occupations 5. Improving recognition of nursing and care qualifications acquired outside Germany 6. Balancing family and career/family and training in the area of geriatric care and nursing 7. Making work conditions in geriatric care and nursing more attractive 8. Raising awareness of the importance of these occupations with a public relations campaign 9. Improving the overall conditions of geriatric care and nursing 10. Taking advantage of (employee) freedom of movement (in the EU) Among the many target agreements were also agreements on a phased increase of trainee numbers in every year of the training campaign by 10 %, reintroducing support and funding for three-year retraining from the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) for the term of the agreement and at the same time expanding the options for shortening training for those with pre-existing skills, a joint campaign to enhance appreciation of these occupations in society. Am the 30 partners signed the text of an agree ment on a Geriatric care training and qualification campaign ( Ausbildungs- und Qualifizierungsoffensive Altenpflege ) as the first Geriatric care training pact ( Aus bildungspakt in der Altenpflege ). The measures agreed on should be implemented over its three-year period until the end of The signing of the text of the agreement was also the starting signal for the Beratungsteam Altenpflege ausbildung (geriatric care and nursing advisory team) set up by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) at the Federal Office for Family and Civil Society Functions (BAFzA) and the launch of a new geriatric care and nursing training information portal ( thereby implementing one of the target agreements in the text of the agreement on the Geriatric care training and qualification campaign. The Beratungsteam Altenpflegeausbildung advises nursing and care facilities, geriatric care and nursing schools and anyone interested in geriatric care and nursing training in all regions in Germany on Federal and Länder statutory issues and organises training alliances and networks. To enhance the transparency of the campaign s success and give all partners in it the opportunity to review, supplement or update contributions, an interim report will be published in An overall review of the Geriatric care training and qualification campaign ( Ausbildungs- und Qualifizierungsoffensive Altenpflege ) will be presented at a joint concluding event in The Act to strengthen initial and continuing vocational training in geriatric care and nursing ( Gesetz zur Stärkung der beruflichen Aus- und Weiterbildung in der Altenpflege ), which came into force on the 13 th of March 2013, makes it again possible for those starting training in this area from the 1 st of April 2013 to the 31 st of March 2016 to receive funding for three-year training courses to become geriatric nurses and also expands the options for shortening training in this area, thus implementing a major element of the Geriatric care training and qualification campaign ( Ausbildungs- und Qualifzierungsoffensive Altenpflege ). upgrading the qualifications of up to 4,000 care and nursing aides to make them geriatric nurses, increasing the attractiveness of this occupational field by increasingly promoting health, providing a more balanced mix of personnel, offering performance-based pay and

68 64 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 3.2. Improving employability through continuing education and training and lifelong learning, promoting transfer opportunities in the education and training system Globalisation and demographic change pose central challenges for society and the education and training system. To take advantage of the opportunities offered by demographic change, the Federal Government s Demographic Strategy 86 relies on lifelong learning. The education and training system must be adapted to the associated new tasks and a system that meets the demands of modern society and ensures equal opportunity and participation in society must be established. Education and training policy is contributing to achieving these goals by creating the preconditions for adequate promotion and upgrading chances equivalent to those for holders of academic qualifications, that pursues the integration of vocational initial and continuing training and transfer opportunities between different education and training sectors, and promotes the recognition of previous vocational qualifications. Demographic developments are changing the domestic market for qualified skilled work, imposing new demands on the way the employment system is set up. Continuing vocational training is an appropriate way for employees and companies to compensate for and largely managing the consequences of demographic developments. These aims will be more successfully achieved if overall rates of participation in further training are increased and lifelong vocational training and learning becomes an indispensable element of workers occupational biographies. The AES Trend Report shows that the highest rate of participation in further training among 18 to 64 yearolds since 1979, 49 %, was recorded in This means that the target figure of 50 % in continuing vocational training by 2015 was already almost achieved in 2012, in particular because this survey did not take into account further train ing measures leading to a higher qualification (e. g. master craftsman s diploma). It should be emphasised in this context that since 2010 the rate of participation in further training among young workers (18 to 24 and 25 to 29 year-olds) has risen by almost 10 % and the participation rate among older workers (60 to 64 year-olds) has grown by 14 % since To make use of all potential qualified skilled workers, it will be more important in future to attract older employees 86 Every age counts (Jedes Alter zählt): The Federal Government s Demography Strategy and those with fewer formally qualifications to further vocational training, motivate them to take part and to activate the hidden reserves. There is also potential for securing the supply of qualified skilled workers among employees who are already qualified. Here, specialist, workplace-related further training can contribute to maintaining individual productivity and increasing the productivity of society at large. There is also potential for tapping the supply of qualified skilled workers available within companies. If they can succeed in using in-house continuing training to make non-formal and informally acquired skills transparent and take advantage of them in their business activities, a range of different opportunities for entrepreneurial success may result. The results of the national supplementary survey on CVTS 3 87 for Germany show that there is very little different between large and small companies in terms of their further training activities. They do make it clear that training is provided in small German companies mainly in the form of courses, but there was very little difference recorded in training participation rates among companies of varying sizes. Decisions on vocational training in Germany are made by employees and employers. The state s role is to create improved conditions for an innovative, national continuing training system through an active continuing education and training policy. Based on an expert scientific report 88 this policy will be oriented towards ensuring, qualification and continuing training consultation, financing for continuing education and training, professional development and professionalization, certification, the recognition of informally acquired skills. Other elements of this policy involve actively raising awareness of the high quality of vocational training and keeping it open and attractive including for high-achieving youth and young adults. National campaigns, such as the BMBF/BMWi s Vocational training practically unbeatable ( Berufliche Bildung praktisch unschlagbar ) information campaign and the BMBF s Berufliche Weiterbildung: Energie für Ihren Erfolg (Vocational training energy for your success) campaign, contribute to raising the profile of vocational initial and continuing training and making it attractive to a wider public. 87 CVTS 3 rd National additional survey BMBF report on Forschungsperspektiven für die berufliche Weiterbildung und lebenslanges Lernen

69 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Measures and programmes promoting continuing vocational education and training The development of the Upgrading Training Assistance Act (Aufstiegsfortbildungsförderungsgesetz AFBG) Key data: Period: unlimited (law) Budget allocation 2012: million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The AFBG, which is financed jointly by the Federal and Länder governments, ensures an individual s legal entitlement to funding for upgrading vocational training, i. e. master craftsmen s courses or other courses that prepare participants for a comparable advanced qualification. The AFBG supports the expansion and upgrading of vocational qualifications, strengthens the motivation of young skilled staff to participate in further training and offers an incentive beyond a reduction in loan repayments for potential entrepreneurs to take the risk of starting their own businesses, after successfully completing further training, thereby creating jobs. The AFBG is 78 % financed by the Federal government and 22 % financed by the Länder. In 2012, the Federal government allocated almost 167 million EUROs for the AFBG alone (2011: 170 million EUROs). The Länder contributed around 47 million EUROs for the AFBG (2011: 48 million EUROs). 100 % of Federal funding for the AFBG is provided by the BMBF. The state-owned development bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, provided around 302 million EUROs for the AFBG in 2012 (2011: about 301 million EUROs). Results of the funding and support: Federal statistics on AFBG published in July 2012 show that over 166,000 participants were funded in 2011, maintaining the same funding high levels as Just on 67,000 (40 %) of participants took part in a full time measure, while around 99,000 (60 %) took part in a part time measure. Compared with 2010, the proportion of those receiving funding for a full time measure increased by just on 3 %, while the number of those receiving funding for a part time measure fell by 3 %. 82 % of participants were aged between 20 and 35, with most, 34 %, aged 25 to 29, followed by 20 to 24 year-olds (33 %) and 30 to 34 year-olds 15 %). 31 % of participants were women. More than half the continuing training courses were provided in the Trade and Industry sector. In the Skilled Trades sector, where the rate of those who go on to work as freelancers is particularly high, 29 % of participants took part in further training measures. Federal statistics confirm the success of improvements to the AFBG that came into force in 2009 and clearly show that it is well worth investing in training and continuing training in the long term. Many skilled staff have gained higher qualifications and career promotions with the help of the Meister-BaföG, also helping to secure Germany s competitiveness. The continuing education bonus Key data: Period: (1 st funding phase) (2 nd funding phase) Funding volume: around 80 million EUROs (50 % ESF -co-financing for bonus vouchers) Internet: Training policy goals: The BMBF continuing education bonus programme currently funds individual vocational continuing education and training through two components. Users can obtain a bonus voucher worth a maximum of 500 EUROs every two years if their taxable annual income does not exceed 20,000 EUROs (40,000 EUROs in a joint assessment) and they pay half the costs of the measure. Applicants must approach a continuing education bonus advisory office to obtain a bonus voucher. The second component of the education bonus is an education savings plan, which after an amendment to the law in the Fifth Capital Formation Act, allows funds covering all related costs to be withdrawn from the savings balance funded by the employee savings incentive scheme to finance continuing education and training, even if the retention period has not yet expired. Both components can be used cumulatively. Results of the Federal funding and support: By the 31 st of December 2012, over 200,000 bonus vouchers had been issued and across Germany almost 570 advisory offices set up, where certified consultants advise people interested in continuing vocational education and training on the continuing education bonus. With an average payout of 344 EUROs per voucher, more than double this amount of private capital, 740 EUROs can be invested in continuing vocational education and training. Groups who are underrepresented in company-based continuing vocational education and training are also reached at above-average rates by the continuing education bonus, especially women (74 %), employees in SMEs with up to 250 employees (89 %) and part-time workers (47 % of payroll employees in advisory interviews). Compared with average training patterns for this group, people from migrant backgrounds are also well represented here (16 %).

70 66 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Continuing education and training funded pursuant to the SGB a) promoting continuing vocational training (Förderung der beruflichen Weiterbildung FbW) Key data: Funding volume: 2.1 billion EUROs in 2012 Internet: citizens continuing education and training Training policy goals: Funding and promoting initial and continuing education and training are core elements of an active labour market policy. Funding for continuing education and training that promotes the right to employment is defined in the third volume of the German Social Code (Drittes Buch Sozialgesetzbuch SGB III), in particular S.s 81 ff. SGB III. Continuing education and training can basically only be funded if it is necessary to vocational integration for the unemployed, to prevent imminent unemployment or for a return to training to obtain a vocational qualification. Local employment agencies (Agenturen für Arbeit) and Jobcenters decide at their own discretion whether the training is necessary and whether applicants fulfil other preconditions for funding. Results of the Federal funding and support: Numbers of people entering continuing vocational training in 2012 remained at about the same level as in Current figures show that 296,033 people began funded continuing vocational training in 2012, about 3 % fewer than in the previous year. The slight fall in numbers in funded continuing vocational training in groups defined in the German Social Code (SGB III) compared with 2011 is a result of the greatly improved labour market situation, the expiry of special regulations introduced to deal with financial crisis and a greater orientation of funding towards efficiency. In 2011 there were for the first time more entries into funded continuing vocational training from groups defined in volume two of the German Social Code (SGB II) than there were from groups defined in volume three of the German Social Code (SGB III) and this trend intensified in 2012 (4.5 % to 164,498). b) Initiative for the initial vocational training of young adults Key data: Period: Training policy goals: The initiative for the vocational training of young adults ( Education makes you someone latecomers wanted, AusBILDUNG wird was Spätstarter gesucht ) started by the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) in February 2013 aims to substantially increase the vocational qualifications of 25 to 34 year-olds. Just on 1.5 mill. young people in this age group have not had any vocational training and almost one in five (around 310,000) is registered as unemployed. The goal is to get 100,000 young adults in groups defined in volumes two and three of German Social Code (SGB II and III) into training resulting in a vocational qualification over the next three years. The focus is on the targeted funding of continuing training resulting in a vocational qualification (full and part-time qualification in a recognised training occupation, external examinations, modular qualification courses). This will also be specifically provided in training places that companies have initially not been able to fill because of a lack of applicants. The initiative is designed not only for the unemployed, but also for employees with no vocational qualifications. Young adults with disabilities will also profit from this initiative. The young adults can gain a vocational qualification by means of individual, company-based retraining or through training in groups with a training provider. Results of the Federal funding and support: Since the initiative only started in February 2013, no results are available yet. c) The Further education and training for people with low qualifications and older employees (WeGebAU Weiterbildung Geringqualifizierter und beschäftigter Älterer in Unternehmen) programme Key data: Funding volume: million EUROs in 2012; 280 million EUROs in 2013 Internet: citizens continuing education and training funding opportunities employment promotion Training policy goals: To improve employees qualification levels, the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) has been running the WeGebAU programme, which is financed through integration funding, since It funds qualification measures for older employees in small and medium-sized enterprises and employees with low qualifications. The programme is designed to secure and improve employability and prevent unemployment, contribute to meeting the need for skilled staff and offer an incentive for companies to improve their competitiveness through continuing vocational training. The Act to Improve Chances of Integration on the Labour Market ( Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Ein gliederungschancen am Arbeitsmarkt ) provides a statutory basis for funding the continuing vocational training of older employees in small and medium-sized enterprises without time limits. Employees under 45 can also receive funding until 2014, if their employer pays at least 50 % of course costs.

71 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 67 Results of the Federal funding and support: This instrument contributes to preventing unemployment and securing a basic supply of workers in Germany. The programme was used less in 2012 than in preceding year, due among other things, to companies improved economic positions. By the end of November 2012, WeGebAU had provided funding to 14,978 people (6,850 of them women). d) The inititative for responding to structural change (Initiative zur Flankierung des Strukturwandels IFlaS) Key data: Funding volume: million EUROs in 2012; 400 million EUROs in 2013 Training policy goals: As well as its existing funding programmes, the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) started an initiative in 2010 that will respond to structural change, enabling those with low qualifications to acquire recognised vocational qualifications or modular qualifications courses in occupational fields that are particularly in demand on the labour market. Since 2012, IFLaS has also specifically addressed those returning to work to help them return to jobs that are subject to social insurance contributions. Results of the Federal funding and support: By the end of November 2012, a total of 28,453 people had received funding (14,562 of them women). The initiative is evaluated by the Institute for Employment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung). e) funding for qualification during short-time work and transfer short-time work Training policy goals: Employees working in short-time or transfer short-time work can participate in qualification measures co-financed by the European Social Fund. These help employees adapt their vocational skills to the constantly changing demands of the workplace and attain a generally higher level of qualifications. The qualification measures improve general employability, help workers avoid unemployment beyond their current occupation, and contribute to securing a supply of skilled staff. Due to the current good economic climate, the ESF s Co-financed qualification measures for recipients of compensation for short-time employment, Mitfinanzierte Qualifizierungsmaßnahmen für Empfänger/ innen von Kurzarbeitergeld programme ended at the end of March Results of the Federal funding and support: Around 4,000 people were funded (601 of them women) from January to November After a period of higher entries in 2009 (123,259 entries) and 2010 (65,830 entries) due to the financial crisis, entries in 2012 decreased sharply in parallel with the fall in the number of recipients of transfer short-time allowances and compensation for shorttime employment. The weiter bilden programme (Social Partner Directive) Key data: Period: Funding volume: 125 million EUROs, ESF co-financed Internet: and Training policy goals: The ESF weiter bilden programme was established to support the efforts of social partners and improve the participation rate of employees and companies in continuing vocational training. It aims to implement collective agreements on qualification and continuing training agreements reached with the social partners. Measures to improve general company-based continuing training conditions and continuing training measures in companies are eligible for funding. Results of the Federal funding and support: These projects ensure a high level of qualifications for employees and make sure that they keep adapting their vocational skills to the constantly changing demands of the workplace. The social partners are vital actors in the area of vocational qualification and have incorporated the issue of qualification into joint agreements, initiatives and projects in various areas. Guidelines support the social partners efforts to increase the participation of employees and companies in continuing vocational training. In the three years of the weiter bilden initiative, 391 applications have been made and 209 projects recommended for funding. 65 % of the projects aimed to improve the framework conditions for continuing vocational training in companies and 35 % of them involved the carrying out of qualification measures. The projects cover a wide range of industries, involving 43 collective agreements. 69 new social partner agreements have been concluded so that activities can be extended to cover industries without a collective agreement on qualification within the guidelines. The social partners great interest in the initiative is reflected in their commitment to it: they are active in 59 % of projects: in 30 % of projects they were themselves applicants or partners and they were involved in the content of a further 29 %.

72 68 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes ESF vocational training without borders programme Key data: Period: Funding volume: 3.2 million EUROs from the BMAS, 8.7 million EUROs from the ESF Internet: Training policy goals: Vocational training without borders is a national pro gramme that funds 35 mobility consultants from the Chambers of Skilled Trades (Handwerkskammern HWKs) and Chambers of Industry and Commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammern IHKs) to inform small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) about opportunities for their trainees to spend time working abroad within the EU and help them organise such trips abroad. The goal is to support SMEs in offering training places that meet the challenges of global markets and make companies more attractive to young people as employers. Results of the Federal funding and support: The programme s outcome has been positive. 21,000 consultancies were provided to SMEs and young adults in training and employment (including multiple consultancies) in Practical training places in other countries were initiated and organised for 1,900 trainees and young employees and the mobility consultants were involved in mentoring 900 interns and young skilled employees from countries all over Europe in German companies. The Vocational training without borders programme has succeeded in creating a national enterprise-related consultancy structure for companies on the vital topic of learning abroad. The initial findings of a programme evaluation found that 80 % of the companies surveyed stated that their willingness to send trainees for this kind of training had increased greatly as a result of the mobility consultation. Companies also assessed the general quality of consultancy very positively. The ESF s Integration through exchange ( IdA Integration durch Austausch ) programme 1 st round October 2008: Improving the employment chances of disadvantaged young people through trans national exchange (Erhöhung der Beschäftigungschancen von benachteiligten Jugendlichen und junge Erwachsenen durch transnational Austausch IdA I) Key data: Period: 10/ /2013 Funding volume: 18 million EUROs of BMAS funding, 78 million EUROs of ESF funding Internet: Training policy goals: This programme s goal is to improve the training and labour market opportunities of young people who may be hard to reach through the labour market by sending them to work for a while in another EU country. Spending time abroad is designed to free them from a difficult situation, include them in existing vocational integration services or integrate them directly into work or training. The projects target groups are teenagers and young adults in particular need of support during the transition from school into training or who are at the interface from training into work. 69 joint projects from Jobcenters, employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit), education and training providers, companies, schools and associations, working in cooperation with transnational partners from over 22 EU member states, have been funded so far. Results of the Federal funding and support: The results have been positive, with around 7,700 participants reached so far (as of September 2012). 80 % of them were unemployed for an average of 15 months and their average age was 23. Initial project-level results show that 50 % and 70 % (depending on the level of disadvantage) of the teenagers and young adults were successfully integrated into work or training. Within six weeks after IdA half of all participants were in training or a job subject to social insurance contributions; within 6 months after IdA this proportion had risen to a third. After participating in IdA the remaining 30 % to 50 % were either studying towards a school leaving qualification or an advanced school leaving qualification, had applied for a voluntary community service year or were taking part in advanced qualification measures. These are very positive results, particularly given the particular obstacles to placement in the way of these young participants. Practical training abroad also increases the trainees social and labour market-relevant skills, which are especially important in choosing an occupation and ensuring that trainees have the maturity they need to complete training.

73 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 69 IdA helps low-achieving young people to find their way into training in a decisive phase of their development. Cooperation among actors in the regional project network and the involvement of Jobcenters and employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit) working together with local companies contributes to greatly improving the applicants chances in the training market. The accompanying exchanges among experts support a transfer of knowledge on different education and training systems and the integration of disadvantaged young people at the European level. 2 nd round September 2010: Improving the employment chances of people with disabilities through transnational exchange (Erhöhung der Beschäftigungschancen von Menschen mit Behinderung durch transnationalen Austausch IdA II) Key data: Period: 09/ /2014 Funding volume: 7 million EUROs of BMAS funding, 43 million EUROs of ESF funding, 3 million EUROs funding from the national rehabilitation fund (Ausgleichsfonds) Internet: Training policy goals: The 2 nd round of this programme enables people with disabilities to gain practical occupational experience in another EU country and expand their vocational skills and thus increase their chances of finding employment and facilitate their entry into the training and labour market. Its target groups are young people making the transition from school into training and from training into work and unemployed adults. The project s activities focus on a trip abroad for one to six months (internship, training, or jobcamp) with intensive support and mentoring for participants in the host country. 45 local and regional joint projects involving associations, rehabilitation providers, self-help organisations for people with disabilities, expert integration services, vocational retraining centres, employers and local governments as well as regional Jobcenters and employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit) have been funded. The joint projects also work together in cooperation with transnational partners in 20 EU member states. Results of the Federal funding and support: About 1,200 participants have completed a stay abroad so far. The project s initial results have not yet been evaluated. The rückenwind personnel development in the social economy ( rückenwind für die Beschäftigten in der Sozialwirtschaft ) programme Key data: Period: Funding volume: 60 millions EUROs, with ESF co-financing and Federal funding Internet: und Training policy goals: The rückenwind programme funds personnel development in the social economy and was developed by the BMAS and the Federal Association of Non-Statutory Welfare Associa tions (Bundes arbeitsgemeinschaft der Freien Wohlfahrtspflege). Sustainable strategies and concepts to ensure the quality of social services and promote personnel development in the social economy are trialed in this programme, increasing the length of time that employees in these occupations stay in them and attracting qualified skilled staff to the social economy. Results of the Federal funding and support: The ESF programme rückenwind personnel development in the social economy ( rückenwind Für die Beschäftigten in der Sozialwirtschaft ) funds non-profit organisations to trial innovative personnel development projects and test promising personnel development methods and tools in practice. After six rounds of funding, 133 projects in various fields have been initiated. These projects deliver important findings on how the social economy can master current challenges and make its employees fit for the future. The rückenwind programme also works successfully to counter falling employee numbers in social services and takes into account the fact that the need for care and nursing services is increasing due to the ageing of society. Particular attention has been paid to care-intensive occupational activities, which will require an adaptation of working conditions to manage the physical and psychological limitations of ageing employees in coping with them. Initial findings on how the social economy can master current challenges and make its employees fit for the future have already been discussed at several specialist conferences. The programme funding available in the current ESF funding period will be fully exploited at the end of the sixth round of funding. A modified continuation of the project for the coming funding round in is planned. This programme, as an employment policy measure designed to improve participants access to the labour and training markets, is contributing to implementing the goals of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the Federal level.

74 70 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Continuing education and training and lifelong learning Literacy and basic education Key data: The workplace-oriented literacy and basic education of adults funding priority Period: 2012 to 2015 Funding volume: 20 million EUROs Information campaign Mein-Schlüssel-zur-Welt.de Period: Financing volume: approx. 10 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The increasing demands of the world of work, even in so-called basic jobs mean that employees have to have increasingly high-level and comprehensive skills, so all adults need adequate literacy and basic education. 89 An inability to read and write impairs the personal development opportunities of those affected and often creates occupational barriers. In 2011 the leo. level one study provided the first reliable figures on the extent of functional literacy 90 in Germany. 7.5 million people aged from 18 to 64 cannot read or write a contiguous text. 57 % of those affected are in employment, 17 % unemployed and 10 % employed in home duties or on parental leave. Two million of them find it hard to read and write individual words. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research launched a new workplace-oriented literacy and basic education funding priority in the autumn of 2012 that be financed with around 20 million EUROs until Working together with the social partners, Chambers, and associations, literacy and basic education training in the workplace or that is workrelated will be developed and be trialed in practice in initial pilot projects. 89 The term basic education signifies the lowest level of general basic educational skills. As well as reading and writing skills (literacy) this term includes skills in the basic dimensions of cultural and social participation, such as numeracy, computer literacy, health literacy, financial literacy and social literacy. Literacy is the practical application of reading and writing skills in daily working and social life. 90 Functional analphabetism is when the writing skills of adults are lower than the minimum requirements expected as a matter of course in managing occupational and social requirements and that guarantee participation in society. Those in this field speak of deficits at the textual level, i e. a person can read or write single sentences but not con tiguous texts, not even short ones, so those in simple jobs for example, may be unable to read written instructions. This funding priority aims to increase the interest of companies and labour market stakeholders in setting up and carrying out literacy and basic education measures in the workplace. Companies and socially relevant actors, such as employment placement agencies and unions, also need to be made aware of this issue, be trained as multiplicators and be involved in literacy and basic education. The services required include, workplace-oriented literacy and basic education concepts and measures, consultancy and training services for stakeholders in the world of work and for the everyday lives of those affected further training courses for trainers and teachers in education and training measures. The National Strategy for Literacy and Basic Education for Adults in Germany was adopted in December 2011 and is designed to anchor this topic sustainably in society. To raise awareness of this problem throughout society, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research started the national information campaign Lesen und Schreiben Mein Schlüssel zur Welt (reading and writing my key to the world) in September It has three main goals: the abolition of taboos around the issue of illiteracy in German society, mobilising those affected, addressing those in the environment of those affected who could help them. Those facing this problem can only be attracted to take part in literacy and basic education courses on a voluntary basis; they have to do it of their own free will and out of their own convictions. A decision to participate can however be significantly encouraged by abolishing social taboos around the issue and through the many regional initiatives on offer. Local Learning Key data: Period: 1 st phase: ; 2 nd phase: Funding volume: 1 st phase, around 60 million EUROs, 2 nd phase, around 37 million EUROs (each 50 % co-financed by the ESF) Internet:

75 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 71 Training policy goals: The Local Learning programme was set up to strengthen regional education and training structures and develop a local education and training management with systematically coordinated individual elements that will enable all citizens to develop more successful education and training biographies. Four fundamental fields of action form the core of this programme: local government education and training management to coordinate diverse training and advisory services and the many initiatives in various fields of action, local government education and training monitoring that uses clear facts and regular reporting systems to reveal the effects of training and advisory services in all education and training fields and highlights areas where action is needed, education and training consultancy designed to ensure that all citizens are supported through every phase in their individual biographies in independently making wellprepared training, advanced training and occupational choices based on sound information, training and education courses focusing on successfully managing interfaces between various phases of life, education and training and education and training institutions. Results of the Federal funding and support: Working with over 180 foundations in a public-private partnership that is new to the education and training sector, the BMBF is supporting districts and independent towns in developing local government education and training management. 35 of the original 40 local governments are still involved in the second phase of funding, which began on and 51 foundations have joined forces in a national association of foundations so far. After the first three-year funding phase, it has been shown that developing education and training structures and intensive cooperation with foundations as civil society stakeholders are innovative approaches in shaping vocational and continuing training. The systematic linking of various levels of vocational training with efficient transition management and optimised advisory services is particularly important in this context, as is developing reporting on education and training at the municipal level Measures and programmes to promote transition opportunities in the education and training system DECVET the development of a credit system in vocational education and training Key data: Period: 11/ /2012 Funding volume: around 4.5 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The DECVET pilot initiative s goal is to make vocational training structures more transparent and facilitate transitions at prominent interfaces. To achieve this goal, procedures for describing, evaluating and transferring learning outcomes among sub-areas of vocational training were developed. Possibilities for a transfer of credits at the following interfaces are identified and trialed: from vocational training preparation into dual vocational training transitions within dual vocational training and at the interface of joint cross-occupational qualifications within an occupational field between full time school-based and dual vocational training and between dual vocational training and further vocational training (as regulated in sections 53 and 54 of the Vocational Training Act BBiG) Results of the Federal funding and support: DECVET focuses on learners and learning outcomes. Learning outcome modules are constructed and adapted so that they take into account company-based and schoolbased, learning outcomes and learning outcomes from outside a school or company setting equally, creating the prerequisite for assessing equivalent learning outcomes from different training courses. An equivalence comparison identifies the potential for transferring credits, based on which credit transfer procedures have been developed. These vary among the interfaces, although three have specifically emerged. The first procedure enables training times to be shortened. At interfaces within dual vocational training for example, a graded credit transfer model has been developed that allows credits to be transferred depending on the percentage of equivalence. The second procedure allows training content to be dealt with in more detail in the freed-up training period.

76 72 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes The third procedure, which can particularly apply in the transition to continuing vocational education and training, provides for individual preparation for and admission to exams. The prerequisite for each of these procedures is the proof of learning outcomes attained. The instruments developed in DECVET to document these are performance and taskoriented. They take into account quality criteria in examination practice and meet the demands of practicability and user-friendliness. The results of the DECVET pilot initiative were discussed on the 4 th and 5 th of June 2012 at the concluding conference with the 10 project participant consortia, regional advisory boards, accompanying researchers, the BIBB coordination office, the social partners represented in the Federal advisory board and experts in the field. Based on its results, a more systematic evaluation can now be made of which instruments are of practical use and which processes are required for accreditation at the four prominent interfaces around the dual system. It is also now possible to better assess the challenges and resistances that still exist in the context of transferring credits for previous achievements in vocational training in Germany. The DECVET pilot initiative s overall results are described in a BMBF publication. Continuing training grants Key data: Programme start 1991 Target for 2013: 22.7 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The BMBF s Continuing Training Grant programme supports young people in obtaining further vocational qualifications after they successfully complete vocational training. The grants fund specialist further training for those wishing to become a technician, master tradesman or certified senior clerk for example, as well as non-specialist further training, such as computer courses or intensive language and study courses for employees that build on a period of training or employment. Funding is provided to cover the costs of the measure and accommodation and travel and the expenses of necessary equipment. Participants can apply for subsidies of up to 6,000 EUROs for as many further training courses eligible for funding as they like within the three-year funding period as long as they pay 10 % of the costs themselves. Results of the Federal funding and support: Around 6,500 new recipients were accepted into the pro gramme in 2012 and the 100,000 th continuing education grant was awarded at the beginning of The programme s successful development is also confirmed by the findings of the scientific research accompanying it. This funding provides further impetus for lifelong learning 70 % of former grant recipients complete additional further training courses after the end of funding and opens up career opportunities 40 % of former grant recipients are in managerial positions. ANKOM transitioning from vocational into university education and training Key data: Period: October 2011 until 2015 Funding volume: around 7 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: One of the findings of the BMBF s ANKOM (recognition of vocational competences in higher education) funding initiative was that those completing vocational training, as well as an accreditation of their existing skills, need further support measures to enable them to effectively complete a university course. The decision of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (KMK) of on providing access to higher education for vocationally qualified applicants with no school-based higher education entrance qualification provided new impetus for the transition of those who have completed vocational training into a university course. As part of its policy goal to promote transitions from vocational into university education and training, the BMBF published Regulations on funding measures for the transition from vocational into university education and training ( Richtlinien zur Förderung von Maßnahmen für den Übergang aus der beruflichen in die hochschulische Bildung ) on Funding is provided for establishing support measures to promote successful study, taking into account workers life situations. Such accompanying and support measures are designed to extend to content as well as to structural, organisational and personal aspects. Related projects and accompanying research are also funded. One of the prerequisites for funding is that participating higher education institutions accredit vocational competencies towards university courses. Results of the Federal funding and support: 20 projects were classified as eligible for funding. The funding period for individual projects will end in the autumn of 2014 and the period for accompanying research in These projects, which deal with different measures and university courses, are designed to provide transferable examples and impetus for further measures to improve transitions. Accompanying researchers from the HIS Higher Education Information System (Institut

77 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 73 für Hochschulforschung) and Institute for Innovation and Technology (Institut für Innovation und Technik iit)) promote the scientific discourse and carry out public relations work in this area. The Upgrading Scholarship Key data: Programme start 2008 Target for 2013: 21.5 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The BMBF s Upgrading Scholarship programme was established for experienced professionals who acquire or have acquired access to higher education as a result of training, further training or professional experience. When talented skilled staff are already earning an income with their vocational qualification, financial issues often prevent them from starting a course of studies. These stipends provide additional incentives for further study and improve the career prospects of talented skilled workers. Funding for full-time study is 750 EUROs monthly, with 2,000 EUROs annually offered to those combining work and study. Results of the Federal funding and support: Four years after programme started, over upgrading scholarships had been awarded by A good 40 % of all scholarship holders in the programme are currently combining work and study. Six out of ten scholarship holders are studying at a university of applied sciences and 45 % are aged over % of the scholarships have been awarded to women and there is a trend towards an increase in their numbers. Just on half the applicants accepted obtain a higher education entrance qualification through vocational and upgrading qualifications and specific enrolment procedures at institutions of higher education. The programme is therefore making a major contribution to education and training and to society by increasing equality of opportunity by expanding access to higher education. The Advancement through Education: Open Universities competition Key data: Period: Funding volume: 250 million EUROs, with the 1 st phase of the first round of the competition co-financed by the European Social Fund and European Union Internet: Training policy goals: The Federal and Länder governments will work together in coming years to improve opportunities for transfer between vocational and academic training in the Advancement through Education: Open Universities competition, thereby helping to secure the supply of skilled workers. A second round of the competition will start in mid The BMBF has allocated a total of up to 250 million EUROs to fund the competition from This BMBF financing is designed to enable institutions of higher education to sustainably establish continuing academic education as an area of business. The current range of practical training courses, courses designed for working adults and dual study courses will all be expanded, increasing the opportunities to develop and trial lifelong learning measures. Results of the Federal funding and support: The competition started in October 2011 with 26 projects in the first round. For certain target groups that institutions of higher education and the courses they offer have not hitherto focused on (especially employees with and with no formal higher education entrance qualification, people with family obligations and those returning to work) courses of study in the form of (cumulative) modules, module combinations (certificates) and courses designed for those in employment (Bachelors and Masters degrees) will be developed. These should make it possible for participants to better combine employment, continuing education and training and their private obligations while taking part in lifelong learning. Courses will also be supported by the application of modern media ( blended-learning study courses ) and an appropriate organisation of schedules. Funding for the two rounds of the competition is provided in two phases. In the first phase, individual and joint projects to research, develop and trial courses of study for up to three and half years can be funded. The second phase is designed to ensure that projects can continue in the long term.

78 74 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 3.3 orienting vocational training towards the future It must be ensured that vocational training is equal to future challenges. By modernising and restructuring initial and further training in a range of occupations, changing qualification requirements will be anchored together with the social partners in vocational training. It is important to identify central developments as soon as possible so as to be able to respond appropriately. Findings on future labour requirements, on aspects of qualification and skills development can be generated through various methodical approaches. To provide answers to current research issues as quickly as possible, the BMBF has initiated further research activities as well as supporting continuing vocational training research by the BIBB New and modernised training regulations Young people need vocational training that prepares them well for the future and qualified skilled workers must be educated and trained for the economy. Technologies, general conditions and workplace requirements are constantly developing and changing, so the vocational training system must accommodate and respond to these changes. For this reason, it is essential to continuously review existing training regulations to ensure that they are up to date and to adapt them to changes in occupations where necessary, to create new occupations for newly emerging areas of industry and eliminate training regulations for occupations that are no longer needed. On the 1 st of August 2012, 5 modernised training regulations as defined by the BBiG/HWO came into force. 152 occupations have been modernised and 51 occupations newly created since The modernisation of 30 training regulations was also begun under various aspects and most of the regulations are expected to come into force in The following training regulations were modernised as of Labour market services specialist Chimney sweep Pharmaceutical office clerk Sign and luminous advertisement maker Process mechanic for plastics and unvulcanised rubber New and modernised further training regulations The signatories of the Joint declaration of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Confederation of German Employers Associations, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts and Confederation of German Trade Unions on upgrading training ( Gemeinsame Er klä rung des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und For schung, der Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeit geber verbände, des Deutschen Industrie- und Handelskammertages, des Zentralverbandes des Deutschen Handwerks und des Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes zur beruflichen Aufstiegsfortbildung ) are campaigning for, companies to make more use of regulated upgrading training in personnel development and recruiting measures. It is worth relying on those who have proven their expert and transferable skills in training, further training and many years of professional practice. All development and career options must be open to those with vocational training; for more people completing vocational training and other employees continue to gain further qualifications to secure their employability and personal development and make use of the services on offer. Regulated upgrading training offers a chance to qualify for more responsible roles. Funding and support as defined in the Upgrading Training Assistance Act (Aufstiegsfortbildungsförderungsgesetz AFBG) ensures financial support for those wishing to undergo further training; the advancing of the extension and updating of the further training regulations system, the continuing development of quality assurance and to ensure that vocational qualifications are compatible with the training system; 91 Further information on the occupations is available on the Internet from

79 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 75 for providers of continuing training to orient their training courses towards the needs of participants, the practical world of work and demanding examination results and ensure that they are appropriate for adults; use of the German Qualification Framework (Deutschen Qualifikationsrahmen) to make the equivalence between vocational training and academic education and training transparent and increase the transfer opportunities between various education and training sectors. The signatories regard it as their joint task to raise the profile of the system of further vocational training and to contribute to extending it to make it fit for the future. Transparency of qualifications and their content, acceptance and broad utilisation of the system are the cornerstones of the attractiveness of vocational training in Germany. In this context, the regulated upgrading continuing training system was further developed in The further training regulations on the occupation of Certified Senior Media Production Designer Image and Sound (Regulation of BGBl. I S. 1467) opens up further training and expands the occupational prospects for those who have completed training for the occupation of Media Designer for Image and Sound and Film and Video Editor. It qualifies those passing this specialist master craftsman s examination to take on senior functions in film, television and sound production. The amended further training regulations on the Certified Industrial Supervisor Specialising in Footwear Manufacturing and Finishing (Regulation of BGBl. I S. 221) corresponds in terms of its structure and content the structural model agreed on more than 15 years ago and takes newer qualification requirements in this industry into account. The certified qualifications to become a Certified Senior Clerk for Freight Traffic and Logistics (Regulation of BGBl. I S. 236), Certified Senior Clerk for Personenverkehr and Mobility (Regulation of BGBl. I S. 231 and Certified Operational Specialist for Logistics Systems (Regulation of BGBl. I S. 241) provide the prospering logistics industry with a sophisticated further training concept that meets the qualification requirements of this branch of industry. With the further training regulations on Certified Senior Clerk for Social Insurance Statutorily Mandated Pensions and Social Insurance for Miners (Regulation of BGBl. I S. 206) consistent national further training regula tions for the public sector come into force for the first time. This qualification is embedded in the personnel development departments of pension insurance institutions and qualifies those completing it for work at the higher intermediate level of the German civil service. The further training regulations on Certified Two-Wheel Vehicle Service Mechanic for non-motorised and motorised Two-Wheel Vehicles (Regulation of BGBl. I S. 214) tie in with the successful model of the Certified Motor Vehicle Service Mechanic, which is an intermediate qualification between a journeyman s and a master craftsman s qualification. These regulations provide the prospering bicycle industry, especially the growing electric bike market, with a further training qualification that takes new developments into account and can be credited towards a master craftsman s qualification The BMBF s Vocational Training Research Initiative Findings from vocational training research form a basis for political decision making. The goals of the research planned as part of the Vocational Training Research Initiative (Berufsbildungsforschungsinitiative BBFI) 92 is to generate information, data and proposals in the form of expert opinions and empirical investigations for education and training policy action. The initiative is consistently oriented towards current education and training policy requirements. In 2012, two new research projects were started, one project continued and four projects in the initiative ended. The projects Bestandsaufnahme der Ausbildung in den Gesundheitsberufen im europäischen Vergleich (a review of training in the healthcare sector in a Europewide comparison), Stellenwert der dualen Ausbildung in Großunternehmen Untersuchung zur inhaltlichen Aus gestaltung von betrieblichen Qualifizierungs- und Personalentwicklungskonzepten (the value of dual training in large companies investigations of the content of company-based qualification and personnel development concepts), Die Wahrscheinlichkeit für KMU-Mitarbeiter an betrieblicher Weiterbildung teilzunehmen (the probability of SME employees taking part in company-based further training) and Bundesweiter Über blick über Nachqualifizierungsangebote: Befragung von Bildungs anbietern zur Nachqualifizierung und Externen prüfung (national overview of qualification measures for adult employees a survey of education and training providers on qualification measures for adults and external examinations) were concluded. The new projects Attraktivität des dual Ausbildungssystems aus Sicht von Jugendliche and jungen Erwachsenen unterschiedlicher Leistungsstärke (attractiveness of the 92 See also

80 76 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes dual training system from the point of view of young people and young adults with different achievement levels) and Bundesweiter Überblick über Nachqualifizierungsangebote (national overview of qualification measures for adult employees) projects were started. The study on Umsetzung der Zulassungs- und Anrechnungsvorschriften bundeseinheitlich geregelter Fortbildungsordnungen (implementing the admissions and accreditation regulations of the consistent nationally regulated further training regulations) was continued. In 2009, the BMBF launched the Vocational Training Research series of publications of studies, expert opinions and reports from the Vocational Training Research Initiative. Volume 14, Zugangswege junger Menschen mit Behinderung in Ausbildung und Beruf 93 (Paths into training and employment of young people with disabilities), was published in With this publication, the Ministry is continuing its contribution to vocational training research, strengthening the transparency and quality of its research activities in this area and making it clear that its decisions are made based on solid evidence. The BMBF will start more new projects start in Projects on the topics of the benefits and costs of testing activities for companies, the amendment of upgrading training in the food industry, successful careers orientation at half-day and all-day schools and securing a supply of qualified skilled staff by further training and qualifying older workers are all planned. The integration of initial and continuing training and the successful entry of dropouts from institutions of higher education into dual training will be further topics dealt with Skills assessment in vocational training ASCOT Key data: Period: 12/ /2014 Funding volume: around 7 million EUROs Internet: Training policy goals: The BMBF s vocational skills assessment research initiative, Ascot Technology-based Assessment of Skills and Competencies in VET, aims to develop, trial and transfer into wider practice innovative procedures for measuring (advanced) vocational skills. The goal is to ensure valid assessment of vocational skills using technology-based processes in vocational training. A range of procedures for measuring students performance has already been developed for general education and training as part of PISA, but 93 See also the vocational training system s complexity makes different demands on output-oriented measuring instruments. Appropriate measuring instruments are required to measure the skills of trainees as realistically as possible. The basis for designing these as part of Ascot is a realistic depiction of vocational working and business processes. This is usually provided in the form of simulations that reflect central aspects of practice and require trainees to think in terms of processes and contexts. Instruments are planned so that they can easily be subsequently transferred into existing examination practice, into comparable occupations and into further training measures and other European contexts. Their results can then contribute to improving the productivity of training courses and quality of facilities, making individuals learning success transparent and opening measures up to improvements. Results of the Federal funding and support: Skills models and testing instruments for mechatronics technicians, electronics technicians for automation technology, industrial clerks, medical assistants and geriatric nurses are currently being developed, trialed and analysed at the national level. A total of 21 projects, consolidated into six collaborative projects, are being funded and started on the 1 st of December In 2013, the testing instruments in all projects will be trialed in pre-tests, with a main survey planned for The prospect of transferring results was taken into account in all projects from the outset and processes have been designed so that they can be easily sub sequently transferred to other occupations and examination and further training contexts. The simulations could indicate ways of improving examination practice or be used in teaching-learning processes or to further develop training regulations or to differentiate school curricula and in-company training plans Early identification of qualification requirements Jobmonitor Successful action requires reliable data for orientation. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales BMAS) is therefore currently developing, with scientific support, a range of instruments to identify current and future staff requirements according to industries, occupations and regions. Initial results on current staff requirements was published in November 2011 in a labour market report drawn up by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales) with scientific support from the Institute for Employment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung).

81 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes 77 This is a sophisticated analysis of trends in shortages of skilled staff since 2006 and a prognosis of developments in the supply of skilled staff by The report on the supply of skilled staff shows that there is not a comprehensive lack of skilled staff in Germany at the moment, although there are shortages in individual occupations and regions. In the spring of 2013, a prognosis model will be used to make well-founded forecasts of the supply and demand for skilled staff by The results will provide essential orientation for policy makers, companies, the social partners and all interested parties. The labour market of the future: supply of and demand for skilled staff by 2030 In 2012 the BIBB and Institute for Employment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung IAB) submitted a new model calculation on labour market developments by The study entered new methodical territory, because it traces the paths between the occupations people train for and the ones they end up working in (occupational flexibility) allowing long-term occupational and qualification trends to be portrayed in all their complexity. These projections show areas in which a shortage of skilled staff may develop and which employees at which qualification levels will be particularly at risk of unemployment. A new edition of the publication forecasting developments by 2030 was published in According to the new projections, increased periods of work, particularly among older workers, will mean that skilled staff shortages will only become noticeable in the wider economy by 2030, although this will occur earlier in some areas. This will especially apply to skilled workers at middle qualification levels, where, despite a slight increase in demand for employees by 2030, there will be a significant decline in numbers of workers with appropriate qualifications. A growing number of skilled staff at the middle qualification level will also be retiring from An increase in the number of first-year students will lead to a slight oversupply of university graduates in coming years, assuming that demand for university graduates in the economy remains constant and grows slowly. This suggests that if development remains stable, there will be no general shortage in the supply of university graduates in the long term, even if there may already be shortages at the regional level and in occupations with very specific requirements. Highly qualified and specialist workers, such as those in STEM occupations, will continue to enjoy good opportunities in the labour market. According to the BIBB and IAB projections, demand for workers with no vocational qualifications will decrease slightly by 2030 and it will be increasingly difficult for this group to find employment. According to the results of the model calculation, companies global labour requirements will exceed the supply of workers, especially in the healthcare and social welfare professions, but also in hospitality and cleaning. Although projected supply is forecast to continue to meet demand, tight labour market situations in the following occupations will result: raw materials-producing occupations, processing, manufacturing and maintenance occupations, machine and plant management and maintenance occupations, occupations in commodities trading and distribution, technical and scientific occupations, and media, humanities and social science and artistic occupations. The BIBB Qualification Panel In managing vocational training and labour market policy, the ways in which companies deal with the challenges posed by demographic change and the strategies they are pursuing to meet their need for skilled staff in future is of particular interest. The BMBF is therefore funding and supporting the establishing of an industry panel on qualification and skills development in the BIBB. The BIBB Qualification Panel is a survey carried out annually to provide representative data on qualification activities in Germany. The surveys focus on the companies activities in the areas of initial and further training. The Panel also deals with various key topics, investigating currently relevant issues in depth. 2,000 companies participated in the first and in the second surveys in the spring of 2011 and % of the companies surveyed in 2011 also took part in the survey in The third BIBB Qualification Panel survey started in the spring of The Vocational training for sustainable development in the second half of the UN Decade Education for sustainable Development funding priority Key data: Period: Funding volume: 3 million EUROs Internet: 94 See 95 See 96 More detailed findings are available in the data report accompanying the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, Chapters A and B1.2.3.

82 78 3. Vocational training policy measures and programmes Training policy goals: With the goal of anchoring sustainability as a guiding principle in vocational education and training, the BIBB, in coordination with the BMBF and as part of the funding priority focus on vocational training for sustainable development in the second half of the UN Decade, is funding the Education for sustainable development pilot schemes as defined in S. 90 Paragraph 3, Number 1 d of the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz). Results of the Federal funding and support: As the report on this funding priority s status as of October 2012 showed, the projects have produced their first successful products, which will be consolidated and trans ferred into other areas of vocational training after the end of BMBF funding. The network of 14 participating Centres of Competence for Building and Energy developed one to two-day learning modules with content relevant to sustainability that will be implemented in the Centres. Close connections with the international network, Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) in Hamburg, and its region also been established, through which the projects findings and products been consolidated and transferred. The successful cooperation between the Sustainability-oriented framework curriculum for the diet and housekeeping occupations ( Nachhaltigkeitsorientiertes Rahmencurriculum für die Ernährungs- und Hauswirt schafts berufe ) pilot scheme and the Globale-Welt-Hotel (global world hotel) project of Hamburg University and the Leuphana University Luneburg, on the occasion of the 17 th University Days 2013 in the spring of 2013 resulted in the founding of a Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Ernährung und Hauswirtschaft (Federal working diet and housekeeping group), so here too, results have been consolidated and transferred and the publication of materials has been ensured. The BEE-Mobil Berufliche Bildung im Handwerk in den Zukunftsmärkten E-Mobilität und Erneuerbare Energien ( BEE-Mobil vocational training in the skilled trades in the vital future markets of e-mobility and renewable energies ) project is a two-year research project integrating other areas that the BMBF is funding and supporting and ensures that ideas and experiences in this area are exchanged. The results of the funding priority so far should result in long-term implementation of the guiding principle of sustainability in vocational training and everyday professional life for those projects not mentioned here as well. Further consolidation and transfer will be accelerated accompanying this process. This funding priority and its six pilot schemes will also define the connections between sustainable development in vocational education and training and occupational and employment structures and qualification requirements and measures, and implement further training-relevant aspects in policy activity recommendations Digital media in initial and continuing vocational training Skilled work is increasingly also becoming knowledge work. Most employees today have to work with increasingly complex technical systems and machines. Forms of IT-based process-oriented modern work organisation are moving competences and responsibilities directly to the production and service levels and so reshaping qualification requirements 97. The impact of these technological and vocationalecological developments and international competition for qualified personnel is constantly increasing pressure on companies to adapt and continuously adjust the quality of their initial and continuing training with the help of digital media. This is however not yet being adequately done. Only about 21 % of skilled trades companies and small and medium-sized enterprises use digital media in companybased initial and further vocational training. 98 Key data: Period: until 2020 Funding volume: 10 million EUROs annually + ESF funding Internet: Training policy goals: The goal is to expand the use of digital media at the local, regional and national level to create sustainable structural change (such as increasing employability), to ensure quality assurance in vocational education and training as a whole, and to create a modern information vocational training infrastructure. The focus is on funding projects that will reach people nationally with digital training measures designed for a range of different industries. The projects funded are designed to contribute to the trialing and dissemination of new learning scenarios by developing modern initial and continuing training courses and training vocational education and training sector actors. Results of the Federal funding and support: With the conclusion of the call for proposals just ended, around 160 individual and joint projects in various industries and phases of vocational training were initiated in Based on previously funded projects, a new over arching Digital Media in vocational training funding programme has been developed and is scheduled for launching in early See also the data report 2013, Part C. 98 MMB 2012

83 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects In the context of international vocational training co operation, there is a clear interest in and a high level of appreciation for the dual training system. In the wake of the global financial and economic crisis and its effects on the labour market, many countries and the OECD regard the dual system as a core element of economic success and social cohesion in Germany. Over the course of 2012, demand for successful dual vocational training from other European countries has risen steeply. Memoranda on bilateral cooperation in the area of vocational training have been signed with Spain, Italy and Greece. These bilateral cooperative ventures will support the partner countries with system consulting, exchanges among experts and pilot projects in collaboration with industry in developing dual vocational training systems. Invited by the BMBF, Germany, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Slovakia and Latvia, with the participation of the European Commission, signed a memorandum in December 2012 in Berlin that contains many concrete measures for introducing a vocational training system based on the German model. The European Commission and European Centre for the Development of vocational training, CEDEFOP, are supporting this process. The EU Commission has made practical training a focus in its new Rethinking Education strategy paper. The Commission also wants to integrate other countries into the reform process initiated by Germany with a Euro pean Alliance for Apprenticeships and has proposed introducing a Youth Guarantee to combat the very high rates of youth unemployment in some EU member states. The Youth Guarantee would provide every young person aged under 25 in Europe with the offer of a job, an internship, or initial or further training, within four months. International skills competition The 41 st WorldSkills (professional world championship) was held in London from the 4 th to the 9 th of October Over four days of competition at the ExCel conference centre, the world s best were chosen from among 950 competitors from 51 countries aged up to 22 from 46 occupations in the fields of industry, the skilled trades and services. Germany started with a team of 26 competitors, one woman and 25 men, in 23 professional disciplines. Germany s team won one gold, two silver and one bronze medal and twelve awards for excellence. The BMBF funded the German team s participation in London. The 42 nd professional world championships will be held from the 2 nd to the 7 th of June 2013 in Leipzig at the Leipziger Messe conference centre. The BMBF and State of Saxony (with ESF funding) will each contribute 10 million EUROs of funding for the event. This WorldSkills will also feature a comprehensive conference programme, including, The meeting of the European Union s (EU) Advisory Committee on Vocational Training (Beratenden Ausschuss für Berufsbildung BABB) (2 nd and 3 rd of July 2013), at which reform approaches for transferring dual training principles into European education and training systems will be discussed. A kick-off conference for the European Union s EU Alliance for Apprenticeships. Germany s dual vocational training system enjoys high popularity among politicians at a European level because of its practical orientation due to on-the-job learning, its resulting relevance to the world of work and the labour market and the country s consequently comparatively low rate of youth unemployment. The European Commission s Directorate General for Education and Directorate General for Employment have therefore announced the creation of an EU Alliance for Apprenticeships. This new EU initiative will start officially on in Leipzig at an event attended by high-ranking representatives from the Commission and from EU member states. The BMBF-OECD vocational training conference Skilling the Future VET and workplace learning for economic success was held on the 4 th and 5 th of July 2013 with the aim of highlighting the status of vocational training in selected areas such as on-the-job learning to an international audience of experts and profiting from international experience in the national modernisation of vocational training. The conference s key topics included, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and higher education: transition pathways and innovative blends of VET Systemic development of apprenticeships and workplace learning: changing roles of responsibilities of trainees, employers and social partners

84 80 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects Innovative concepts for making the transition between school and work. The BMZ, together with UNIDO and the Saxon Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labour, will also host a series of further international events such as WorldSkills. Studies on vocational training by the Organisation for economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) In September 2010, the OECD published the Learning for Jobs study, which rated the German dual training system very highly. Publication of this study and the Education at a Glance study succeeded for the first time in putting an end to the annual ritual public discussion on whether Germany has too few university graduates. In the Skills beyond School follow-up study, the OECD investigated post-secondary VET opportunities and courses in participating countries. The German study defined post-secondary VET as non-academic further training opportunities after an initial vocational qualification, so it focused on master craftsman qualifications, continuing and further education provided by chambers of trade and industry and private providers, and technical schools and specialist academies. The study was based on the publication Aufstieg durch Fortbildung Deutscher Hintergrundbericht zur OECD-Studie Skills beyond School ( Getting ahead through education German background report on the OECD Skills beyond School study ), which was specially created to accompany it, and other relevant documents and on two one-week visits, including meetings with experts from the OECD team, in March and June The results of the studies are scheduled for publication in The European Qualification Framework (EQF) In establishing the EQF, EU education ministers and the European Parliament (EP) have a created a shared framework of reference to mediate between different qualification systems and their standards, which will make qualification certification in Europe more transparent, comparable and transferable. The EU s recommendation on the EQF requires member states to link their qualification standards in a transparent way with the EQF s levels. Development of a German Qualification Framework (GQF) Germany s Federal and Länder governments agreed on the development of a GQF in 2006, stipulating a high level of compatibility with the EQF as its structural starting point. On this basis, a discussion proposal for a GQF was developed together with representatives from social partners and research, education and training organisations in the German Qualification Framework Working Group (Arbeitskreis DQR AK DQR) in By June 2010, its functionality had been reviewed by experts in four vocational and occupational fields (metal/electronics, IT, trade and healthcare) through an exemplary classification of qualifications. The GQF Matrix was reviewed on the basis of expert votes. The AK DQR adopted the proposed GQF in March Like the EQF, the proposed GQF consists of eight levels, generally characterised by a level indicator and the relevant specialist and personal skills. All the levels should be attainable through various forms of education and training, including vocational training. The AK DQR s work in 2011 and 2012 focused on developing a proposal for classifying the German education and training system s formal qualifications in the GQF. Political agreement on this was reached in early 2012 and classified a Masters/Technicians qualification as equal with a Bachelors degree at Level 6. The classification of the Strategic Professional (IT) at Level 7 highlights the equivalence of vocational and academic training at the Masters level. Initial vocational qualification was classified at Level 4 (3 and 3½-year training courses) and qualifications from 2-year training courses at Level 3. A joint declaration by the Federal and Länder governments and Social Partners (see Chapter 1) stated that general educational qualifications would not initially be included in the German Qualification Framework. In June 2011, two working groups were formed involving the main continuing education and training stakeholders and social partners to develop recommendations on the criteria that could be used to include non-formal and informal learning in the GQF. In the spring of 2013 based on the trial phase for the exemplary classification of formal qualifications, a group of experts was convened to classify around 15 selected, potentially classifiable qualifications from the non-formal sector as exemplary so-called anchor qualifications in the GQF. 99 The european Credit system for Vocational education and Training (ecvet) In 2009, the European Parliament and European Union Council adopted a recommendation to create a vocational education and training credit points system to facilitate the accrediting, recognition and consolidation of assessed learning outcomes of individuals seeking to gain a qualifi cation. It will also improve the transferability of qualifications between various sectors of industry and within the labour market 99 See also

85 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects 81 in the context of lifelong learning. The main objectives in trialling of ECVET are to promote European cooperation in the area of vocational education and training and establish transnational practical networks. Member states are called upon to develop and trial relevant practice-oriented processes and instruments by Education and training stakeholders and learners who are testing and further developing ECVET in EU-funded pilot projects, see it as an opportunity to sustainably im prove the quality of cross-border mobility measures and establish and secure time spent abroad during vocational training and the use of ECVET instruments such as partnerships and learning agreements in the long term. The number of education and training stakeholders who are trialing ECVET as part of the EU s lifelong learning programme is steadily increasing. Their goal is to develop practicable, transparent processes and instruments that could facilitate the transferability of learning outcomes from one country to another and between different education and training sectors. This is the focus of the eight ECVET pilot projects in the second round of EU funding ( ). Four of these pilot projects are lead-managed by Germany or run with substantial German involvement: EASY Metal 100, 2get1care 101, ESgCQ 102 and ICARE 103. Since 2010, education and training stakeholders have been supported by a European network of national agencies (NetECVET) 104. The network is contributing to further developing European mobility into a more quality-assured form of ECVET mobility and creating the basis for broad implementation of ECVET in the area of transnational mobility. To do this, a toolkit of various solutions, customised concepts and examples and training materials for applying elements of ECVET are currently being developed. The National Coordination Office (Nationale Koordinierungsstelle NKS) for ECVET 105 is informing, advising and supporting education and training stakeholders trialing ECVET in the context of transnational mobility in Germany. Working together with education and training experts, NKS ECVET has developed guidelines for describing learning outcomes and guidelines on assessing the documentation of learning outcomes and has also held practical workshops. Since the beginning of 2012, NKS ECVET s work has been accompanied by a National Team of ECVET Experts 106. The main tasks of the 13 experts have included providing target group-specific advice and establishing networks (Communities of Practice) to sustainably integrate the findings gained in trial projects into education and training practice. ESCO (European Skills, Competencies and Occupations taxonomy) Entwicklung einer europäischen Taxonomie für Berufe, Kompetenzen und Qualifikationen ESCO (European Skills/Competences, Qualifications and Occupations) is an EU initiative that goes back to the European New Skills for new Jobs strategy, which has been adopted by the European Council. A multi-lingual 107 classification of occupations, skills/ competences and qualifications, ESCO is developing a specifically European labour market terminology. It is not an instrument for matching vacant positions with the right applicants, recognising qualifications or providing careers counselling rather it provides semantic support for the development and implementation of the instruments to do that. In most cases it is not ESCO itself that serves these specific requirements, but ESCO applications that are used. ESCO classification is based on three interconnected pillars : occupations, skills/competences and qualifications. ESCO s goal is not to record all the specific occupations, skills/competences and qualifications in Europe s labour market and education and training sector; instead the ESCO reference vocabulary is designed to allow for an adequately precise, Europe-wide exchange of information in these areas, so it only includes terms with broad regional significance. ESCO classification seeks to balance width and depth: to be wide enough to record all the major occupations, skills/ competences and qualifications, and to be detailed enough to describe them precisely. ESCO provides terminology that can be extremely helpful in describing learning outcomes in the form of skills/competences. Competences may be acquired as part of formal qualifications, but also in other ways at work or in training. By taking the overall dimension of skills into account, the ESCO classification recognises the importance of experience-based learning The main goal of ESCO classification is to improve interoperability in the international comparison of CVs and job ads and so contribute to better matching jobs with 106 For further information see ESCO has been translated into all 22 official languages except Irish. Translations into Croatian, Norwegian and Icelandic will soon be submitted.

86 82 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects applicants in a competence-based online process. This can be done by recognising and evaluating relevant information in unstructured and semi-structured documents such as CVs and job ads so that the right applicants can be found for vacant positions based on individual skills/competences profile. Competence-based job placement enables available competences to be effectively deployed in the labour market, strengthening occupational mobility and counteracting structural unemployment. ESCO is offered in the EURES portal as an aid to modern competence-based job placement and to improve occupational mobility. Using ESCO classification to analyse the competences of individual applicants not only improves job placement, it also opens up new careers counselling opportunities. An analysis of their need for competences and qualifications makes it clear to job seekers how important competences and qualifications are on the labour market. Job seekers without the necessary competences and qualifications may be motivated to acquire them. By providing prompt feedback on the competences required in the labour market and linking ESCO with information on training and education courses, the classification underscores the importance of lifelong learning. ESCO s four main milestones are: The establishing of a management structure for ESCO to involve stakeholders, Definition of an overall method for the development of ESCO classification, Development of ESCO content by defining the classification s semantic structure and the professional profiles to be included, Development and implementation of IT infrastructure: a taxonomy management system, taxonomy cooperation instrument and the ESCO portal. To ensure the participation of stakeholders in ESCO, there is a Board, a Maintenance Committee, a secretariat and reference groups one reference group covering various education and training sectors and several sector-specific reference groups. The Board, the strategic leadership committee, makes decisions on basic policy issues, the approach, steering, distribution and operation of ESCO, including on the release of major updates of the classification. The Maintenance Committee carries out conceptual work, developed the ESCO data model, determines the methods for sector-related reviews of the classification and is currently drafting the quality management approach. The secretariat is responsible for technical management, distribution systems, the support of management structures and the daily operation of ESCO. The European Commission has organised an ESCO stakeholders conference for the autumn of 2013, at which the ESCO website will be launched. The ESCO website offers general information on the ESCO classification, on its synergies with other European initiatives (European Vacancy Monitor on job vacancy ads, European Sector Skills Councils on sector-specific skills, and European Skills Panorama) and a first version of the ESCO classification. Europass The European Commission wants to promote the transnational mobility of citizens in the education and training system and on the labour market. Europass enables European citizens to present their qualifications in a clear, consistent and internationally comprehensible form. 108 Europass thereby creates the prerequisites for establishing both the transparency of individual education, training and professional skills and experience and the comparability of qualifications acquired internationally in member states. Europass consists of five individual documents. The overarching document is the Europass CV, which every citizen can use for job applications. Over 18 million Europass CVs have been issued Europe-wide since the pass was launched in Time spent undergoing education and training abroad is documented by the Europass Mobility. With more than 100,000 Europass Mobility documents applied for, Germans have made the most use of the Europass, compared with their fellow Europeans. The National Europass Center (NEC) at the NA-BiBB is responsible for issuing Europass documents in Germany and for the programme s public profile and dissemination. In 2012 a concept for developing new teaching materials on the Europass on CD-rom was developed to promote integration of the Europass into teaching. As well as intensifying its press and public relations work, the NEC has launched a series of reports describing some best-practice examples of Europass, PASSgeschichten Leben und Arbeiten mit dem Europass (PASS stories living and working with the Europass). The PASSgeschichte are reports on working with the Europass in companies, schools, institutions of higher education and other institutions For further information go to

87 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects 83 Information and consulting on international mobility Preparation and information are vital factors in ensuring the success of phases of mobility, so the Information and Advising Centre for Professional Training Abroad (Informations- und Beratungsstelle für Praxiserfahrung im Ausland IBS), the central German service provider in all areas relating to vocational qualification outside Germany, has been working in this area since Commissioned by the BMBF, the IBS offers an overview of the many grant and scholarship schemes and funding measures that support mobility for educational and training purposes. An inter-institutional interface, the IBS offers a wide range of services, aimed at increasing opportunities for initial and continuing vocational education and training outside Germany and raising awareness of these opportunities in industry and society. Advisors from the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) working in the EUROGUIDANCE network (European training and careers counselling) also keep end users and multiplicators such as careers counsellors and teachers informed on the diverse opportunities for training in Europe. Services provided in the EURES network can be combined to cover often closely succeeding phases of mobility in training and employment in the context of joint consultancy services. The more than 30 mobility consultants from the Chambers of trade and industry and skilled trades also advise companies, trainees and those just starting their careers on options for spending time training abroad during vocational training. 111 The EU Lifelong Learning Programme The European Union s education and training policy goal of promoting the transnational mobility of learners and teachers in all areas of education and training and the quality and efficiency of the education and training systems, is supported by the EU s lifelong learning programme 112. With a project period of seven years (2007 to 2013) the programme has a budget of around seven billion EUROs. It consists of four individual programmes that are oriented towards the education and training sectors of school (COMENIUS), uni versity (ERASMUS), vocational training (LEONARDO DA VINCI) and adult education (GRUNDTVIG). The EU s education and training programme is supplemented by a transversal programme designed to support the planning of political measures and learning of foreign languages, furthering the integration of media into education and training processes and the dissemination of the programme s findings. 110 See www3.giz.de/ibs 111 See See In this context, the National Agency Education for Europe at the BIBB (Nationale Agentur Bildung für Europa at the BIBB NA beim BIBB) 2012 was significantly involved in the European Quality Assurance in Lifelong learning (QALLL) network for a third year. 15 national agencies, leadmanaged by Austria s National Agency, were required by the EU Commission to submit a range of proven instruments for ensuring quality in adult education and in vocational education and training, qualitatively analyse them and then formulate recommendations for the system and for providers. The results were presented in the form of a project compendium, a qualitative report and recommendations in The lifelong learning programme accompanies the Copenhagen Process in the area of vocational training, especially through the LEONARDO DA VINCI programme. The programme s central instrument is project funding for activities in the areas of Mobility, Partnerships and Inno vation Transfer, for which almost 40 million EUROs was made available in The programme s quantitative goal is to increase the number of young people who during training a spend time abroad as part of training to 80,000 a year by In Germany, the number of stays abroad applied for and approved in 2012 in the LEONARDO DA VINCI Mobility Action increased by 10 % compared with the previous year. More than 14,300 trainees and students from vocational schools, 2,100 employees and 1,200 skilled vocational training staff were provided with funding. In 2012 the National Agency Education for Europe at the BIBB (NA beim BIBB) published the findings of the Grenzüberschreitende Mobilität bei sozial benachteiligte Jugendlichen in der Berufsausbildung Kompetenzerwerb und besonderer Nutzen der Auslandserfahrung (International mobility for socially disadvantaged young people in vocational training skills acquisition and the particular benefits of time spent abroad) study, which focused on trainees from vocational education and training in institutions outside companies ( Berufsausbildung in außerbetrieblichen Einrichtungen BAE) who spent time training abroad during their training. The goal was to assess their acquisition of personal and social skills and find out whether time spent training abroad benefited disadvantaged trainees in subsequently gaining employment. The conditions for success in carrying out mobility projects with disadvantaged trainees were also investigated and recommendations for action developed. The study confirmed a significant increase in trainees skills, especially in their personal and social skills. Time spent training abroad had a positive influence on the employability of this target group. Based on the study s results, projects that 113 See

88 84 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects pursue an inclusive approach will receive funding priority in The study s results were also discussed by experts at a conference. Institutionally and systemically anchoring time spent abroad during vocational training is a central political goal in ensuring the sustainable internationalisation of training in Germany. Companies and training institutions that can afford to do it can receive a certificate from the LEONARDO DA VINCI programme. Certification makes it easier to make applications and provides more security of planning for future mobility support schemes. 130 companies and vocational training institutions were funded under this simplified process in Germany has continued the success of previous years in the LEONARDO DA VINCI partnerships action. 134 partnerships in which Germany is involved were selected by the European Commission in coordination with member states. The partnerships process and product-orientation have enabled education and training actors in this area to work flexibly towards specific targets. The focus is on an exchange of concepts and practical experience that will result in a product that can be widely disseminated. LEONARDO DA VINCI partnerships develop innovative lifelong learning products and visibly intensify European networking. With these products, they made a major contribution to further developing and implementing key areas of European vocational training: ECVET, EQF, social inclusion and the professionalization of vocational training personnel. The LEONARDO DA VINCI partnerships and their products can be viewed in a European database 114. In the LEONARDO DA VINCI Innovation Transfer projects too, more funding was provided in 2012 than in the previous year, with 34 projects funded. The selected projects aim to implement central European Commission training policy initiatives: ECVET, EQF and EQAVET, the New Skills for New Jobs initiative and identify occupationally-relevant key competences. In terms of specific industries, a striking number of projects dealt with the area of care and nursing (and for the first time also the care and nursing of young people). The projects content deal with topics current in the national debate: demographic change and the resulting shortage of skilled staff, and the financial crisis, with its effects on training and employment. In these projects, innovative solutions to existing needs are transferred from one context into another and implemented in practice or in the vocational training system, with transfers extending beyond Länder, sector and target group boundaries. Details on ongoing and completed projects can be obtained from the European ADAM database To contribute to practically implementing the Memorandum of Intent on vocational training between Germany and Spain, the National Agency Education for Europe at the BIBB (NA bei BIBB) working in cooperation with Spain s national agency, held a contact seminar on Work-based learning (and dual education) in VET in Europe: Exchanging ideas, developing projects at the end of November In the three-day seminar, 28 vocational training actors from Germany and Spain and four participants from the Netherlands and Finland developed project ideas for the LEONARDO DA VINCI vocational training programme, presenting 25 project ideas for the action fields of Mobility, Partnerships and Innovation Transfer. Applications for participation will be made in Spain and Germany. The key topics were in-company training personnel, cooperation between schools and companies as places of learning and methods and materials for company-based learning processes. The special programme to promote the professional mobility of young people with an interest in a training place and unemployed young skilled workers from europe (MobiPro-EU) In early 2013 the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales BMAS) a launched special programme with 139 million EUROs of funding ( ) to attract young people from other EU countries to fill vacant training places and skilled jobs in Germany. The BMAS commissioned the Central International Placement Service (Zentrale Auslands- und Fachvermittlung ZAV) of the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit BA) to carry out the special programme. The programme provides support for young skilled workers, young people and young adults who are at least 18 and up to 35 years old, who have completed school but have not yet completed company-based vocational training, and who want to undergo company-based vocational training in Germany. The special programme offers German language training in the applicant s home country, internships and training support services in Germany, mobility assistance, and cost of living and social and vocational educational support. Bilateral vocational training exchange programmes To intensify international cooperation in the area of vocational training, the BMBF funds bilateral vocational training programmes with France, the Netherlands and Norway. Building long-term international cooperative structures and strengthening cooperation between relevant vocational training actors supports the vocational learning experience during traineeships.

89 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects 85 The Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zu - sammenarbeit (GIZ) is responsible for coordinating pro grammes with the Netherlands and Norway in Germany. The German-French vocational training exchange programme has been run by the Deutsch-Französische Sekretariat (DFS) 116 since In 2012 around 2,550 German participants received funding from these programmes. Thanks to the extensive involvement of industry, the exchange projects are closely linked with current industry practice, contributing greatly to increasing trainees specialist skills. The principle of reciprocity underlying the bilateral exchange programmes makes a major contribution to international networking and the exchange of information and ideas among participants. The German-Israeli vocational training cooperation programme is run by the BMBF with the Israeli Ministry for Industry, Trade and Labour (MOITAL) to further develop vocational training in both countries. The programme, which the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has been commissioned to carry out, has for the past 43 years enabled specialist and senior vocational training staff to exchange views and experience on current vocational training topics, and to develop innovative approaches and products and trial them in practice. The project team cooperation on Solar energy and energy efficiency started and study tours on Quality Assurance in VET were held in A successful exchange between German and Israeli vehicle mechatronics technician trainees was also carried out for the first time. The German-Israeli vocational training cooperation programme contributes to anchoring professional mobility and international work experience in vocational training. Promoting quality development in vocational training in Europe Improving the quality and efficiency of general and voca tional education and training was the second of four priorities adopted in 2009 by EU education and training ministers in a strategic framework for European cooperation in the area of general and vocational education and training ( Education and Training 2020 ). Specific projects have focused on this goal in developing effective quality assurance systems and better transitions between various areas of general and vocational training, increasing the attractiveness of vocational training and expanding the mobility of learners and teachers. In the same year (2009), the European Parliament and Council submitted its Recommendation on establishing a European quality assurance reference framework in vocational education and training, paving the way for closer cooperation among EU member states in this area and starting the so-called EQAVET process. This process, a quality assurance initiative of 33 European states, resulted from efforts to further develop Europe s different vocational training systems through a shared understanding of quality assurance and quality assurance culture, making them more comparable and transparent, so as to create a European education area in the near future. EQAVET does not prescribe any specific quality models for member states, but recommends they use a four-phase quality assurance process (P-D-C-A cycle) and ten reference indicators for guidance. It is important that the European Reference Framework be seen as a toolbox from which users can choose from among the ten indicators those that seem suitable to them, given the requirements of their own quality assurance system. Since 2011, an English-language online tool that every user of the EQAVET website can freely access has been available at the system level. In March 2012, it was supplemented by a further English-language tool for providers, which is designed for vocational schools and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The tool and other quality assurance materials were tested and discussed by various stakeholder groups in the EQAVET information seminars, which were held for the first time in A national reference point for quality assurance issues in vocational training has now been set up in most member states. In Germany, the DEQA-VET national reference point has been this fulfilling this function since Its portfolio of activities includes addressing all relevant actors and net working them with the goal of promoting a culture of quality assurance. The German reference point offers current information, highlights successful examples from practice, holds specialist events and actively supports the EQAVET process on its website, In September, DEQA-VET held its 4 th conference on Bildungsrepublik Deutschland: Auf dem Weg zu einer Kultur der Qualitätssicherung in der beruflichen Bildung ( The Federal Republic of Education: Germany on the way towards a culture of quality assurance issues in vocational training ). In cooperation with ENIQAB, the Modellversuchsinitiative Qualitätsentwicklung und -sicherung in der betrieblichen Berufsausbildung (pilot scheme initiative on quality development and assurance in company-based vocational training) and the EQAVET projects, seminars in English in an international forum formed part of the programme for the first time. The many participants from various European states took advantage of the opportunity to inform themselves about Germany s situation and exchange ideas and views with representatives of the EQAVET process.

90 86 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects At its conference, DEQA-VET suggested that instead of the mainly regional or sectoral debates held so far, a coordinated national dialogue should be held, which could inspire and further future discussions on quality assurance in vocational training. Continuing training with a European dimension The European Centre for Heritage Crafts and Professions in Thiene offers theoretical and practical advanced training in four languages, German, English, French and Italian, and promotes dialogue on the concepts and challenges of protecting Europe s cultural heritage. Since 1985 the BMBF has provided annual grants to journeymen and master craftspersons working in the areas of painting/varnishing, stonemasonry, joinery, plastering and metalwork for a three-month further training course. In the autumn of 2012, ten young German craftspersons participated in an architectural heritage protection course in Thiene, learning and consolidating their knowledge of restoration techniques across a variety of trades and in an international context. Exporting vocational training The need for well-trained skilled staff is growing all over the world and with it the demand for initial and continuing vocational training a decisive prerequisite for economic development and international competitiveness. In economically dynamic countries and regions in particular, an acute shortage of skilled workers is now a serious risk to future economic growth. Germany has outstanding strengths in initial and continuing vocational training, so training services made in Germany are increasingly in demand worldwide. Vocational training cooperation with India, Russia, China and Turkey is accompanied by top-level bilateral vocational training working groups under the BMBF s leadership. Germany offers partner countries possible solutions based on the globally-recognised German dual initial and continuing vocational training system. The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung BIBB) supports institutions in partner countries through cooperative relationships with systemic advice, cooperative research projects and exchange activities. The BMBF also maintains a training policy dialogue with a range of other countries. Europe itself was the focus of activities in The economic and financial crisis resulted in sharp rises in youth unemployment in some European countries after This resulted in increased demand from other European countries for the central configurations of the German dual vocational training system, such as the duality of company-based and school-based learning processes, the development of national vocational training standards and the involve ment of social partners and especially companies in vocational training, etc. To coordinate joint measures, the EU vocational training summit on Vocational Training in Europe Perspectives for the Next Generation was held in Berlin on the 10 th and 11 th of December A joint memorandum on increasing cooperation to modernise vocational training was signed with top education and training ministry representatives from Spain, Portugal, Greece, Latvia, Italy and Slovakia. The summit and signing of the Memorandum also signalled the start of a European vocational training alliance to decisively combat youth unemployment. A series of joint, short-term bilateral measures (study trips, a peer learning platform and dual training pilot projects in partner countries) were agreed on for German vocational training services have become a coveted export commodity on the global training market. The imove (International Marketing of Vocational Education) initiative, which the BMBF launched in 2001, is a central partner for German vocational training services providers and those abroad seeking their services. imove offers a comprehensive range of services to Germany s mainly small and medium-sized training providers to support them in planning and implementing their international commitments, including market studies, conferences, seminars and workshops, visits by delegations and involvement in trade fairs, a comprehensive Internet presence in seven languages, and a provider database. The initiative also campaigns in other countries to raise the profile of German skills in initial and continuing vocational training with the Training Made in Germany brand. In 2012 imove activities focused on Arab countries, India, Russia and Latin America. Together with Ghorfa, the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, imove held the 4 th Arab-German Education and Vocational Training Forum under the patronage of the BMBF with over 200 participants. imove also participated in a trip with a delegation to the United Arab Emirates to investigate business opportunities for German education and training providers there. As part of the German Year in India, imove raised the profile of German vocational training at several Indian events. imove also went with a German delegation to the 5 th Global Skills Summit in New Delhi, where a imove office also opened in 2012, and held a call for proposals to further train Indian trainers for the Indian Labour and Employment Ministry. imove participated in a German-Russian vocational training conference in Kaluga and organised a workshop with 75 training experts in Santiago de Chile. Examples of successful cooperative ventures with partners from China,

91 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects 87 Russia and Latin America have been published in the new brochures and imove also published market studies on Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Mexico and Chile. The status and prospect of vocational training in development cooperation Development cannot be sustainably successful without education and training. For this reason, the BMZ has anchored education and training as a core element in German development policy and the BMZ education and training strategy has formulated Ten objectives for more education ( Zehn Ziele für mehr Bildung ) for The strategy s guiding principle is lifelong learning, so it covers all phases of learning, from early childhood through primary and secondary education, to vocational training up to university education and training, and finally to adult education. This holistic support for education and training focuses on people and covers not only individual education and training sectors, but the entire education and training system. Vocational training, including initial and continuing vocational training, enables people to develop not only technical and social skills necessary for qualified employment. It also improves their general personal and social skills, develops their personalities and enables them to actively participate in shaping their own lives, working environments and society. Labour market-oriented initial and continuing training enables people through employment to earn the income to lead dignified lives and escape a downward spiral of poverty and dependence. The qualifications acquired in vocational training increase people s chances of participating in society and politics, promoting overall human development. The availability of qualified skilled staff is also an important precondition for sustainable economic development for the future in many partner countries, so vocational training contributes to social development and to establishing and stabilising democratic structures. The BMZ education and training strategy sets new priorities in vocational training with the holistic approach of lifelong learning, taking formal and non-formal vocational training and forms of informal learning equally into account to better reflect reality in our partner countries. Building on the BMZ education and training strategy, the BMZ position paper on Vocational training in German development policy ( Berufliche Bildung in der deutschen Entwicklungspolitik ) supports the BMZ framework of reference, its implementing organisations, grant recipients and other partners in the conceptual design and implementation of vocational training projects and was published at the end of November The range of instruments of German development co - operation is oriented towards successful key features of dual vocational training in Germany. close cooperation between the state and business and industry learning in work processes social acceptance of generally binding standards qualification of vocational training personnel institutionalised vocational training research Proven vocational training instruments are implemented and extended to achieve these goals. German development cooperation supports dialogue between the state and business and industry, the development of inter-company occupational, training and examination standards and of qualification programmes for teachers, trainers, heads of schools and education and training planners in the area of initial and continuing vocational training. These measures are accompanied by the extension and equipping of vocational schools and centres of technology competences, the development of sustainably effective financing models, the institutional networking of the supply of and demand for employees, and an accompanying development of organisations. The BMZ s commitment in the area of vocational training will focus on qualifications in the informal sector, financing education and training, vocational training in the context of fragility and gender equality. In keeping with the BMZ s new development policy concept, Chancen schaffen Zukunft entwickeln (providing chances developing the future) ( ) and the BMZ education and training strategy, the BMZ will strengthen cooperation with business and industry and civil society in vocational training. Since 2009, vocational training has become an increasingly important element of German development policy, which is clearly reflected in commitments made in this area. Funding was significantly increased in 2012, with around 90 mill. EUROs earmarked for it. Bilateral vocational training programmes are currently being carried out in the following partner countries: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Honduras, Yemen, Mozambique, Pakistan, Togo, Namibia, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Albania, 117 See strategiepapiere/strategiepapier322_8_2012.pdf

92 88 4. International vocational training cooperation current status and future prospects Armenia, Georgia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kirgizstan, Moldavia, Montenegro, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, El Salvador, the Palestinian Territories, Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Egypt, Lebanon, China and the Philippines. German EZ sees private business and industry as an important partner. Most development partnerships with business and industry that focus on sustainable economic development have a direct relationship to vocational training. The BMZ has supported vocational training partner ships with German business and industry since In vocational training partnerships the cumulated strength of the German economy the Chambers, associations and their agencies and their skills are all brought to bear on vocational training in development cooperation. The BMZ has also intensified cooperation with business and industry and civil society through the Team Berufliche Bildung (vocational training team), which was founded in early This Team complements the Thementeam Bildung (education and training thematic team), informs representatives from implementing organisations, civil society, churches and business and industry and discusses central development policy processes in this sector. In 2012 the BMZ launched the Innovationswettbewerb für Vorhaben der beruflichen Bildung in Entwicklungsländern (Innovation competition for vocational training projects in less developed countries). 42 innovative projects wanting to implement promising vocational training schemes in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe entered. 118 Within German civil society, churches are important providers and promoters of vocational training in less developed countries. They have been creating functioning initial and continuing training structures in many partner countries for decades. These structures have supported many people by offering them a basis for a more productive life. Closer coordination between Federal departments in the area of vocational training in cooperation with less developed and newly industrialising countries will be provided in the medium term in the Edvance Initiative 119. Edvance is a Federal Government initiative lead-managed by the BMBF and BMZ together with German education and training and development institutions. The initiative s goal is to improve consistency among the many German vocational education and training actors, especially in the transition between development cooperation and partnerships. 118 For more detailed information on the competition and the winning projects go to wettbewerb. 119 See

93 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 Opinion on the Federal Government s draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 submitted by the Board of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) The Board of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung) thanks the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung for creating the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013, which again provides a comprehensive overview of vocational education and training developments in Germany. Many countries envy Germany its vocational training system. Germany s relatively low youth unemployment rate is a result of its young people s high rates of transition from general education schools into dual training and then into the employment system. Young people are trained practically and well prepared to carry out an occupation. The dual vocational training system must be maintained and further developed. The social partners in particular are called upon to get involved in this area, although the Länder too, must have a vital interest in ensuring excellent education and training for their citizens. expanded supply and demand ratio. Calculated solely in terms of the company-based number of training places, the ratio of com pany-based training places offered compared with young people s demand for training places was again slightly above the previous year s level in 2012 (2012: 89.1, 2011: 88.6). There was however, a decline in the number of newly concluded training contracts compared with the previous year of 3.2 %. This is due to demographic developments and the resulting lower school-leaver numbers (1.6 %). It is also the result of a targeted cutback in the amount of non-company training offered (15 % compared with the previous year), which is expressly welcomed by industry. It is becoming increasingly difficult to match the training place supply of companies and demand of young people for training places. The increase in the number of unfilled training places compared with the previous year (12.1 %) shows this contradiction and the great challenges facing companies in securing a supply of young skilled staff for the future. In terms of figures alone, every unfilled training place could have been filled more than twice again in Efforts to make use of all available potential for vocational training and attract high-achieving young people for dual vocational training must be intensified. Opinion submitted by the group of employer representatives on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 The situation on the training place market is still good The situation of the training place market continues to be positive. Training opportunities for many young people in 2012 can be described as good. On the 30 th of September 2012 there were more unfilled training places (33,300) than unplaced applicants (15,700) registered with employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit) and Jobcenters, as there were in the previous year. The number of unplaced applicants at the end of subsequent placement was considerably reduced to 7,700, even though only around 50 % of invited applicants attended the subsequent placement action. The good training situation was largely due to the fact that business has again more than exceeded the commitments it made in the Training Pact to provide 60,000 new training places and attract 30,000 new companies to training. It is also reflected in the Companies need for suitable applicants is growing It is increasingly challenging to precisely match young people and companies on the training market. This is shown by the fact that as well as the number of unfilled vocational training places, the number of unplaced applicants also increased (38.2 %). If young people do not find a training place in their preferred occupation, they should consider another dual training occupation as an alternative. To be able to do this, they must get to know a wide range of occupations at an early stage. Industry takes the view that the key here is comprehensive and practice-based careers orientation at school. All schools should cooperate with partner companies and the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit). Just as the shortage of skilled staff is especially high in some regions, the training market is also subject to regional variation. Young people must be encouraged to be more mobile and accept training places outside their home regions. The many existing support measures and structures, such as residential homes for young people, should be strengthened and used in a more targeted way.

94 90 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 Further optimisation of the transition system required Industry welcomes the news that the number of young people entering the transition system has again fallen (2012: ; 2011: ). This is not least thanks to the willingness of companies to increasing give even lowerachieving young people a chance in training. This positive trend does not however absolve the Federal, Länder and local governments of their responsibilities to clear the confusing funding landscape of the transition system. In a joint declaration, the Training Pact partners have called for better coordination and bundling of the many services offered. The main goal must be to give young people who need special support the most job-related preparation possible for training. Given the many open training places, placement in training must be the highest priority. If they cannot be placed in training, as many young people as possible should be made fit for company-based training through companybased introductory training or EQ-Plus. More combinations of EQ with support during training are required to assist companies and young people who need special support. Accompanying research has shown that their transfer rate from introductory training, at over 60 %, is much higher than for those coming from school-based measures. There are still too many young people in school-based measures in the transition system who would be entirely or at least partly mature enough for training. Reducing inefficient school-based transition measures is especially important, because the large range of services offered in many Länder can make company-based qualification more difficult or prevent it altogether. An optimum transition into training can only succeed if general education schools are also not released from their responsibilities. The maturity required for training and careers orientation must be secured here first and foremost. Industry and business groups are committed to providing every school prepared to take part in a cooperative venture with a partner from their sector. Students from schools that have prepared them well for working life rarely end up in the transition system. Industry also supports the Federal Government s Educational chains measures. Lower-achieving young people in particular, need individual mentoring and support, building on an analyse of their potential. Industry supports the promotion of careers start mentoring at all schools and calls on the Länder to provide the co-financing required for it. Expanding careers start mentoring would effectively assist many young people and create a basis for reducing other funding measures for the transition from school into training. Industry proposes in this context to systematically document educational progress so that the effectiveness of careers orientation can be reviewed and follow-up measures made both effective and targeted. Intensify vocational training cooperation in Europe The dual vocational training system has proven to be very stable and productive, even in the face of the economic and financial crisis. It has contributed significantly to keeping youth unemployment in Germany (8.1 %) well below the EU average (23.4 %). The high level of appreciation for the dual vocational training system in Europe currently should be taken advantage of in intensifying international vocational training cooperation. Industry supports the Federal Government s activities to establish and expand company-based training structures in interested EU member states. In this context, two main factors in the success of Germany s dual system should be especially highlighted: the proven principle of social partnerships and the involvement of the Chambers in vocational training. Opinion on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 submitted by the group of employee representatives A. On the training market situation Demographic chances missed, willingness to provide training at an historic low level Despite an easing of demographic developments, the training market situation remains disappointing. Business and industry has taken little advantage of falling numbers of applicants numbers have fallen by about 178,000 since 2001 to train young people who have so far had no opportunities. On the contrary, companies commitment to training has fallen to historic depths. The number of new training contracts concluded fell to 551,271, a drop of 3.2 % compared with the previous year. The only lower annual figure since German Reunification was that of The proportion of companies providing training has also fallen to historic depths. Only 21.7 % of companies offered training in 2011 (2010: 22.5 %, 2009: 23.5 %, 2008: 24 %, 1999: 23.6 %). It is unreasonable for the Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 to describe a good situation for many young people. Despite the apparent easing of the training market, the proportion of people without vocational quali fications is still high million people aged from 20 to 29 have no vocational qualifications, so 14.1 % of young people have no training. The high number of young people without any vocational qualifications does not exactly fit in with reports of success.

95 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training The Report on Vocational Education and Training takes stock as follows: on the 30 th of September 2012 there were 33,275 unfilled training places and 15,650 unplaced applicants, so the number of unplaced applicants and of unfilled training places was higher than in the previous year. This representation belies the real training market situation. Not all young people looking for a training place are counted as applicants in the official statistics. Young people who have not been assessed in the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit BA) profiling as mature enough for training, are not counted as applicants, so are not included in the official review of training, so the review of training is attenuated. Young people with a training contract Applicants in holding patterns With a training placement contract Applicants in holding patterns With no training placement contract Applicants whose whereabouts is unknown 551,271 60, ,393 89,933 The Training Pact also counts young people classified by the BA as mature enough for training but who still landed in alternative measures (internship, introductory training, vocational preparation measures etc.) as placed. 60,379 of these young people informed the BA that they were still looking for a training place in To provide a more realistic picture of the training market situation, the authors of the National Report on Education take the view that these young people must be classified as unplaced. In 2012 alone, 76,029 applicants remained without a training place despite the 33,275 unfilled places. According to these statistics, the demand for training places was more than double the supply. 107,393 young people registered as applicants were without a training contract. They also ended up in holding patterns, but had not informed the BA that they had found a training place. The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung BIBB) assumes that these young people have simply postponed their desire for training for the current year, so these young people are also not adequately placed. In the training year 2012 there were 89,933 young applicants whose whereabouts was unknown to the BA. A realistic view of the actual training market situation would better assess the category of young people interested in training. The BIBB has provided such an assessment based on the number of new training contracts and the young people and young adults registered as applicants who did not have a training place. Their statistics show that of the 824,626 young people who were seriously interested in training in the 2012 re por ting year and who were declared mature enough for training, only 551,271 had signed a training contract, so just 66.9 % of these young people had found a training place. Officially unplaced applicants 15,650 Total of those Interested in training 824,626 To improve the training market situation, the following measures will be required: Companies must change their employment practices/expand support during training: The de facto closing off of many training occupations to young people with lower school leaving qualifications must end, although companies need help to do it, so support during training should be expanded be offered by companies as standard. An individual support plan would be created for each trainee in coordination with the training company, based on which learning phases and outcomes could be traced. The instructing personnel would usually be experienced trainers and teachers. Youth and community workers would support trainees through occupational and private problems and help those with learning problems and exam nerves. Strengthen company-based training by financing it according to prevailing economic conditions: To stabilise the number of company-based training places depending on economic fluctuations and create a fair balance of companies that provide training and those that don t, and take the particular features of industries into account, training financing funds should be established. Use collective agreements and projects for training: Unions and management could use their influence to help young people with poor starting opportunities. The Start in den Beruf (career start) agreement, which IG BCE concluded, the metal industry s collective agreements, or Telekom s Meine Chance ich starte durch (My chance) project could serve as examples of this kind of commitment. In a funding phase of up to one year, young people could receive specific support (to remedy deficits in school education with the support of non-school social workers, for example) to improve

96 92 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 their chances of successful training. In this phase, they would already be integrated into the workforce. Those who successfully complete the funding period would then have an opportunity of being integrated into normal training, which would create new paths into company-based training. Expansion of integrated training market statistics: We need a sophisticated overview that covers all relevant training and qualification courses to more comprehensively assess young people s training situations. This would involve consolidating several sets of statistics that are collected at the Federal and Länder level, focusing on general and vocational schools statistics and on the BA s statistics. The Federal and Länder governments should start an initiative based on the model of integrated training statistics (with individual data) used by the Land Hessen. B. Improve the quality of training Compared with 2009 (22.1 %), the rate of premature training contract terminations increased in 2011 to 24.4 %, despite the measures introduced to prevent von premature contract terminations and training dropouts. This rate is far too high. The rate of premature training contract terminations must be analysed to find out the causes. It is the task of the competent bodies to ensure the quality of training in companies and companies own maturity required for training by providing stronger inspection and support measures. The Chambers double role as bodies that check the quality of vocational training and as lobbyists for companies creates aconflict of loyalty that can only detract from the quality of training. It is striking that rate of premature training contract terminations has varied greatly between individual training occupations over many years. Furthermore, all the training occupations with a high proportion of unfilled training places have also had the highest rate of premature training contract terminations over several years. Rates of more than 40 % and low rates of subsequent transfer into employment are not unusual in some industries. This is especially true of the hotel and restaurant industry. If companies use young people as cheap labour and no attractive occupational prospects for the time after training are offered to them, they will stop applying to train with those companies. If companies want to be attractive to applicants, they will have to pay their trainees better, improve the quality of training, take on more trainees and improve their employment conditions. The quality of vocational training must also offer young people an opportunity of participating in university studies. Vocational schools and companies must provide vocational training that also supports comprehensive personal development. As well as technical training, promoting cultural and socio-political skills is an important aim of training. Venues for vocational training are also venues for democracy. C. Career policy developments in care and nursing Demands on the work of care and nursing staff are changing. The current tendency to specialise care and nursing occupational training depending on patient age is no longer in keeping with the demands on modern professional care and nursing. An orientation towards the demands of the care sector is still necessary, as are specific qualifications in acute hospital care (including paediatric care), ambulant care and in-patient services for the elderly. The basic principles of the Federal-Länder Working Group on preparing the draft of a new nursing profession act (Pflegeberufegesetz) of the 1 st of March 2012 offer reasonable solutions for further developing the care and nursing occupations only in some areas. The proposed general training would compromise both the quality of training in general, paediatric and geriatric nursing and employability after the successful completion of training and ignores the needs of the labour market. Changes to acute care for example, require in fact a higher degree of specialisation. The introduction of short general skilled professional carer training in care and nursing occupations that really require a high degree of specialisation must be avoided. Promoting the right training policy for broader (general) training is hardly feasible under current conditions. Much company-based training provided in hospitals is not attractive for aged care institutions as training providers, so there is a risk of a reduction in the number of training places in the aged care sector. Employee representatives are therefore in favour of a three-year training period with two years of uniform basic training and a further year of specialisation in general care and nursing, paediatric nursing or in geriatric care and nursing resulting in different professional qualifications. The proposed introduction of initial academic training in this area would forestall the results of the pilot scheme. The question of which particular activities academically qualified care and nursing staff would carry out has also not been cogently answered. Because demands on care and nursing work are in - creasing, qualified nursing training to at least the level of a recognised vocational training qualification is required here. The group of employee representatives is therefore not in favour of introducing training occupations below the level of a three-year technical training. Those who have completed training as an assistant are far more likely to be

97 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training unemployed than skilled professional nurses. To meet the growing need for skilled staff, a broad, three-year nursing training specialising in outpatient care based on the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz) would be a reasonable alternative to the assistants training courses that are regulated by the Länder. A further important point is the BA s reintroduction of funding for the third retraining year of geriatric nursing training, which can open up occupational prospect to many people. D. Improve transitions from school into work: simplify structures, secure meaningful connections, guarantee training Despite demographic change, 266,700 young people still landed in transition system measures in This jungle of measures must be cleared. Anyone starting companybased, school-based or transition system measures with a training provider must be guaranteed an opportunity of acquiring a recognised vocational qualification. Employee representatives therefore call for clearer structures in the transition from school into work. After unsuccessfully applying for a company-based training place, young people must have the right to at least three years of training in a recognised vocational occupation. Regional labour market requirements and young people s occupational preferences should be taken into account in choosing occupations. Individual aptitudes and abilities for a specific occupation are also important preconditions for successfully completing training. Young people who have not found a company-based training place should receive a training contract that ensures them at least three years of training at a vocational school or with a non-company training provider. The right to training placement of young people registered with the BA would be retained over this period and there would be regular checks to see whether it might not be possible for them to change to companybased training. Only young people who need extra support should undergo training preparation measures. All other young people need training. Training preparation must be oriented towards skills and qualifications in training. Company-based training preparation measures have priority in this context. If young people are not able to begin dual training or a training at a vocational school, in-company introductory training should be made possible for them. It must be ensured that it is credited towards broader training and companies should be prevented from being paid to take on trainees they would take on anyway. Introductory training (EQ) should focus on young people whose highest school leaving qualification is a secondary general school certificate. All EQ participants should also be enabled to attend vocational school in appropriate specialised classes. Many organisations and actors provide wide-ranging help for young people in managing the transition from school into training. This help is however largely independently offered. Three social services providers are responsible for people aged under 25 for example; employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit), social welfare and youth welfare services. There is no central agency to comprehensively inform young people and offer them counselling from a single source. Youth vocational agencies based on the Hamburg Model should be set up to be responsible for all school-age young people, including those of an age to attend vocational school, until they have begun and completed training. They should also help unplaced former applicants and adults under 27 with no vocational qualifications. The youth vocational agencies should be affiliated with upper-level local administration and financed through the existing funds of the various actors ( employment offices (Agenturen für Arbeit), social welfare and youth welfare services providers). Close cooperation with general education and vocational schools is also necessary for reaching all young people. Providing young people with intensive mentoring and support requires a high quality of education professionals, so personnel standards (contracts, pay rates that are appropriate and agreed on collective bargaining, initial, continuing and further training etc.) and stable employment conditions for those working in the area of the transition from school into work must be maintained. Procurement legislation must be reformed and professional institutions working in the area of the transition from school into work should receive at least five-year contracts in future. Only then will they be able to ensure, continuity of personnel and quality. New statutory regulations guaranteeing the quality and sustainability of training services are also required. The many young adults with no training need a second chance. 60 % of them are (irregularly) employed. The unemployed and the employed need training courses tailored to meet their situations; full-time training with incentives to gain a qualification and measures designed for those in employment that make training possible for people with family obligations, both financially and in terms of the time required. BA initiatives for young people with no training must be provided as measures to cover all groups defined in social welfare legislation accordingly.

98 94 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 E. Strengthen vocational upgrading training With its own separate profile, vocational upgrading training is an alternative equivalent in standard to university studies. The national further training regulations as defined in S. 53 of the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz) and S. 42 of the Crafts Code (Handwerksordnung) provide established and recognised structures for it. The corresponding national continuing training regulations were developed with experts from the social partners. This ensures that their content fits in with a current and foreseeable need for qualifications in the areas covered and that they are broadly applicable to companies and those completing training. Upgrading training qualifications should be classified in the German Qualification Framework at levels 5, 6 and 7. Based on a common definition of skills covering all areas of training, it is possible to classify those with vocational qualifications who have not attended university in the upper skills levels. The group of employee representatives expects, companies to take regulated upgrading training into account more in personnel development and recruiting measures, the German Qualification Framework to contribute to more equivalence between vocational training and school and university education and training. Professional development opportunities must be enhanced by improving access to university, that a suitable quality assurance system will be developed to ensure a nationally high level of advanced training quali fications. Linking vocational upgrading training with a quality assurance system can open up new perspectives in the European and national discussion on vocational training, continuing training providers to orient their continuing training towards the needs of those in training and to motivate trainees. It is the task of all actors in the further training sector to promote the vocational training system and contribute to building it up so that it will be sustainable in future. Transparen cy of qualifications and of their content, acceptance and broad utilisation are vital cornerstones in ensuring the attractiveness of vocational training. F. Establish validation of non-formal and informally acquired skills The validation of non-formal and informal learning currently has little weight in Germany. Qualifications are documented based mainly on formal training courses and examinations. Learning that occurs outside formalised education and training in open contexts is largely undocumented, although much work in companies requires a comprehensive development of skills acquisition and on-the-job learning. The career biographies of today s workers are no longer linear and formal references often provide little information on a person s actual occupational skills; rather they reflect a dated level of fomerly acquired education and training. In this context, the group of employee representatives welcomes the expansion of European vocational training policy with the addition of an instrument for validating nonformal and informally acquired skills as of December Member states are called upon to develop processes for validating such skills by The group of employee representatives calls upon the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) to quickly develop proposals for this process together with all vocational training stakeholders. In developing proposals, the following criteria should be taken into account: Recognition of non-formal and informal learning should be regarded as an integral part of the national qualification system. Occupational skills and professionalism are the frames of reference for recognising non-formal and informal learning. The development of the German Qualification Framework represents an opportunity for systematic recognition of nonformal and informal learning in the qualification system. The social partners and business and industry organisations are key actors in the development of systems for recognising non-formal and informal learning. Methods of recognising non-formal and informal learning must take into account the individual features and nonstandard character of non-formal and informal learning. An effective recognition of non-formal and informal learning will depend largely on the work of consultants, assessors and organisers of recognition processes. A formal framework within which the recognition of nonformal and informal learning occurs is necessary. National legislation should establish criteria and quality standards for recognition. Existing institutions must be recognised and certified to carry out recognition procedures and new institutions set up for this purpose. The recognition process for individuals should be financed from tax revenues and be free of charge.

99 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training G. Expand continuing education and training Rates of participation in continuing education and training in Germany are low by international standards. Participation in continuing training is currently unequally distributed and depends on previously attained qualification levels and on an individual s social, family and company-internal status. Despite public rhetoric about the necessity for lifelong learning for personal and economic development, participation in continuing vocational training has declined in recent years in Germany. The Federal Government is therefore rightly striving to increase participation in continuing education and training from its current rate of 43 % to 50 % by This national continuing training goal will only be reached through joint efforts at all levels. Its task must be to improve overall conditions in terms of people s financial resources and time available and create incentives to participate in training. The rate of participation in continuing training has fallen to 43 %. Despite the ageing of the workforce, company-based further training measures for older employees were offered in just one in six companies employing workers over 50 in Only 8 % of the smallest companies offer such measures, although 93 % of large companies offer them. There are also major differences between industries in this area. About half the companies in the loans and insurance industry and in the public sector for example, provide company-based further training for older employees. The essential importance of continuing education and training in social development is not sufficiently recognised. As with other areas of training and education, it requires social responsibility and systematic continuing development. Despite earlier attempts, by the German Education Council (Deutsche Bildungsrat) for example, to make continuing training a fourth pillar of the education and training system, it tends to still have the status of a complementary and reserve instrument for various social adult training needs. The group of employee representatives believes that the issue of continuing training has been largely forgotten in this legislative period. The coalition agreement has declared the initiation of a further training alliance to be one of its goals. Apart from the ESF s Förderung der berufliche Weiterbildung von Beschäftigten (Social Partner Directive) guideline, there has however been no success in this area. A series of reform efforts of previous years and decades have not been implemented in practice: the Education Forum (Forum Bildung), the recommendations of the Expert Commission on Financing Lifelong Learning and funding and support from the Committee on Innovation in Continuing Training (Innovationskreis Weiterbildung), for example. The institutional, financial, chronological, legislative and organisational preconditions for making lifelong learning an integral element of every person s biography are still lacking. Germany must change course. We need an effective, solidarity-based continuing education and training system that offers all people a better access. Continuing vocational training must be an integral element of personnel policy in companies because only this will enable constantly changing demands, technological developments and new manufacturing and production processes to be implemented. A true continuing training culture must be anchored in companies. Qualification pay collective agreements and company agreements should form the basis for a systematic qualification policy. Continuing vocational training must again successively become the heart of an active labour market policy. The group of employee representatives are therefore calling for a change of course, because more, not less good quality continuing vocational training is required to alleviate the shortage of skilled staff and integrate the disadvantaged into work. Major impetus has been provided with the Up grading Training Assistance Act (Aufstiegs fort bil dungs för derungs gesetz), the WeGebAU programme, the Continuing Edu cation Bonus and the ESF Richtlinie zur För derung der beruflichen Weiterbildung von Beschäftigten (Social Partner Directive). National further training regulations are an indispensable element of a new culture of continuing training. Countries like France, Denmark and Sweden have shown that more public intervention can provide crucial impetus in this context. The state must create the overall conditions in national legislation for a right to continuing training, to periods of learning and training guaranteed by law, to financial support, to more consulting and transparency, and to quality assurance and certification. The parties to collective agreements, managment and workers, must also be supported in promoting the financing of company-based continuing vocational training through industry funds. A legal right to continuing vocational training for the unemployed must be introduced into employment promotion law. As a follow-up measure in the area of vocational (not company-based) continuing training, the group of employee representatives proposes introducing periods of training financed through unemployment insurance, depending on how long contributions have been paid for. Unemployment insurance should be further developed to be preventive, be more like employment insurance, and be integrated into long term working accounts. Financing for individual further training should be secured by a BAföG grant for adults returning to unversity studies or vocational qualifications. Participation in upgrading training should continue to be financed by the Upgrading Training Assistance Act (Meister-BaföG), and

100 96 Opinions on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 all other individual continuing training measures with a socially-just, means-tested loan. Supplementary opinion submitted on the draft Report on Vocational Education and Training 2013 by the group of Länder representatives The Länder add their thanks to those of the Board and welcome the generally positive developments in the training place market, noting however, that the dual vocational training system is not unaffected by economic influences and regional and structural disparities. These mean that young people are remaining unplaced in training despite the numbers of unfilled training places. There are obvious matching problems, which have been described at several points in the Report on Vocational Education and Training. Preventive measures must be carried out promptly, especially in the areas of improving measures designed to optimise career choices and increasing the quality of training. The transition between school and training should also focus more on the target group of young people who are not yet or not completely mature enough to complete training. Different structures in the Länder must be taken into account in planning and carrying out national funding and support programmes. Consistent national programmes are welcomed but should be better coordinated with the Länder, in particular with their funding structures, to be of more benefit. Individual national projects are of limited value because they only work in certain areas and are not generally sustainable. Efforts should be made to ensure a far more coordinated and consistent division of labour between the Federal and Länder governments. Further expansion of continuing vocational training is regarded as an essential aspect in securing a supply of skilled staff. Better use must be made of the endogenous potential of skilled staff in companies by increasing unqualified employees participation in further training and providing training for adults with no vocational qualifications. To sustainably secure a supply of skilled staff, funding and support measures provided for continuing vocational training by the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) and Jobcenters should also be more frequently taken into consideration % of young adults aged 20 to 29 have no voca tional qualification. These young people are also needed as skilled staff. Providing training for adults with no vocational qualifications is the right approach for employees with low qualifications and for sustainably integrating the unemployed into the employment system. Regulated further training as a solution to the difficult situation on the training place market over the past decade has not lost importance but it has lost public attention. It has usually only been discussed from the point of view of costs for those participating in the examinations, yet this is a vital element of vocational training. All vocational training partners are called upon to strengthen the regulated further training system. Companies need for skilled staff can hardly be met or is not met at all in some areas and all measures must be taken proactively to remedy this situation. As in the era of a shortage of training places, all actors are called upon to find creative and practical solutions. All reserves must be mobilised for training and education. Even lower-achieving young people or people with disabilities can be valuble employees. The state should provide training for them that is compatiable with their abilities, but the social partners are also called upon to find solutions that will fit in with companies. Middle-aged and older workers should in particular be enabled to take part in useful, qualificationrelated training to keep older employees in employment provided with further training they need and ensure that they receive accompanying support.

101 Index 97 Index Advancement through education: open universities AES Trend Report Allowance for basic vocational training ANKOM Applicants from earlier reporting years Applicants with an alternative on , 24 Applicants who left school in years before the reporting year Arena4You ASCOT Geriatric care training and qualification campaign BA/BIBB applicants survey , 33, 38 Occupational and training policy developments in the care and nursing area BIBB transition study... 30, 36 BIBB qualification panel... 33, 77 Bilateral exchange programmes BIWAQ Boys Day German Qualification Framework (Deutscher Qualifikationsrahmen DQR)... 5, 80 Girls Day IBS Information and consulting on international mobility IdA Integration through exchange IFlaS Initiative for responding to structural change Initial training for young adults, Education makes you someone latecomers wanted Initiative Inklusion careers orientation programme Integrated reporting on training... 28, 40 Inter-company vocational training in the skilled trades (Über betriebliche berufliche Bildung im Handwerk ÜLÜ) Inter-company training centre funding (Überbetriebliche Berufsbildungsstätten ÜBS) International skills competition... 6, 79 Introductory training International training mobility career start coaches career start coaches special programme Careers counselling under S. 30 of the German Social Code (SGB III) Careers orientation under S. 33 of the German Social Code (SGB III) Careers orientation, intensive (expanded) careers orientation measures... 39, 46, 47, 48 Central office for the coordination of international cooperation on vocational education and training... 6 coach@school Company-based and non-company training contracts Computed placement rate... 9 Continuing education and training Continuing education bonus Continuing training with a European dimension Jobmonitor JOBSTARTER JOBSTARTER CONNECT JUGEND STÄRKEN Funding for residential homes for young people KAUSA Labour market of the future BIBB study Lifelong learning Continuing education and training and lifelong learning EU Lifelong learning programme Literacy and basic education Local learning Digital media DECVET Developing quality assurance in vocational training in Europe Development policy cooperation ECVET Educational chains leading to vocational qualifications... 5, 45, 46 ESCO European Alliance for Apprenticeships... 6 European Qualifications Framework (EQF) Europass EQ Plus... 45, 57 Matching... 5, 24, 60 Migrants/people from migrant backgrounds... 5, 37, 59 MobiPro-EU National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Staff Need for qualification, early identification of Newly concluded training contracts... 5, 7 according to sectors according to financing form according to gender New ways into dual training Occupations with two years training OECD Further training regulations, new and modernised Placement rate of young people interested in training... 9 People with disabilities, vocational training for people with disabilities , 48, 66, 69

102 98 Index Previously unsuccessful training applicants Pre-vocational training measures Prognosis Look back at the prognosis for Prognosis on the development of the training market in Prognosis on the development of the transition system Training regulations, new and modernised Training termination, see training contract termination Transition system new entries into the transition system... 5, 28, 40 transition system measures and programmes prognosis on the development of the transition system, see Prognosis rückenwind School leaver numbers Skills measurement in vocational training, see ASCOT Subsequent placement Supply and demand ratio... 8 Supply and demand ratio, expanded... 8 Support for apprentices during training... 57, 60 Sustainability, see Vocational training for sustainable development Targeted placement Training contract terminations and dropouts Trainee place programme for eastern German (Ausbildungsplatzprogramm Ost) Training for adults without vocational qualifications... 52, 66 Training for those entitled to stay in Germany and refugees Training in healthcare occupations Training market situation... 8 Training market situation Training modules... 5, 53 Unfilled vocational training places... 5, 7, 8, 33 Unplaced applicants , 7, 8 Upgrading scholarship Upgrading Training Assistance Act (Aufstiegsfortbildungsförderungsgesetz AFBG) VerA Initiative for preventing training termination... 46, 51 Vocational education and training export Vocational orientation in inter-company training centre and comparable institutions programme (BOP)... 37, 46, 47 Vocational qualification perspective Vocational training practically unbeatable... 45, 57 Vocational training research initiative Vocational training for sustainable development Vocational training without borders WeGebAU weiter bilden Worldskills, see International skills competition Young adults with no vocational qualifications... 35, 66 Youth unemployment... 6, 86

103 The BMBF is participating in the Federal Government s training offensive as a partner and actor and therefore deployed trainees in producing the Report on Vocational Education and Training Trainee offset printers were involved in printing the Report on Vocational Education and Training in the Ministry s own printing works. Published by Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Division of Basic Policy Issues of Initial and Continuing Vocational Training (Referat Grundsatzfragen der beruflichen Aus- und Weiterbildung) Bonn Germany Orders In writing to Publikationsversand der Bundesregierung P.O. Box Rostock Germany [email protected] Internet: or by Phone.: Fax: (14 cent/min. from the German fixed network, max. 42 cent/min. from German mobile networks) August 2013 Printed by BMBF Layout BMBF Photo credits Thinkstock: Title This publication is distributed free of charge by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of its public relations work. It is not intended for commercial sale. It may not be used by political parties, candidates or electoral assistants during an election campaign. This applies to parliamentary, state assembly and local government elections as well as to elections to the European Parliament. In particular the distribution of this publication at election events and at the information stands of political parties, as well as the insertion, printing or affixing of party political information, are regarded as improper use. The distribution of this publication to third parties as a form of campaign publicity is also prohibited. Regardless of how recipients came into possession of this publication and how many copies of it they may have, it may not be used in a manner that may be considered as showing the partisanship of the Federal Government in favour of individual political groups, even if not within the context of an upcoming election.

104