No. 1/1999
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No. 1/1999 |
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A re-organization of the recognized training occupations no longer suffices. The VET system as a whole must be re-oriented. This was the opinion expressed at a press conference in Bonn at the beginning of this year by Regina Görner, Board Member of the German Trade Unions Confederation (DGB). Vocational training today must reach beyond the required adaptation to new technical and work-organizational developments and include the possibility of shifting within the fields of activity, said Görner. This not only implied a changed, but also a greater need for qualification. Today, in all training programmes there was a need for more basic knowledge and less specialization, more options, more interfaces between different training courses and greater transparency of vocational qualifications.
But, in actual fact, a reverse trend was to be observed: more sectors were moving towards their own tailor-made training regulations. But this was precisely the wrong path, because the flexible labour markets of the future called for the broadest and most efficient training possible. The basic problem which Görner discerns may be seen in the example of the commercial occupations. In addition to ten purely commercial occupations, there were four more just for financial services. In addition to wholesale, retail and industrial clerks, there were now audio-visual media clerks, commodity clerks, automobile business clerks, publishing house clerks, railway and road traffic clerks. The health clerk, the fairs and exhibitions clerk and even the two-wheeler clerk were now being discussed. Görner thinks that this trend is a "colossal mis-development". Her credo is: no more sector-specific occupations but cross-sectoral, function-oriented training. The know-how for the specific branch of activity could be imparted through standardized components; the part of the components to be taught in the vocational school could take the form of block instruction. Görner proposed a ten-point model for a new overall system covering the regulation of recognized training occupations. It envisages broad-based occupations which will enable a change of job without long periods of re-training. Occupational categories should be classified in relation with one another, training occupations should be classified according to a uniform system. There should be a uniform description of key qualifications in all training regulations, core qualifications should include the essential package of qualifications required for a specific occupational category or a whole sector. The necessary partial qualifications - certified in a vocational training passport - could, at the end, replace the final examination. Furthermore, they could be the subject of different types of continuing training and thus at last bring about a real link between initial and continuing training. The confederations of German industry firmly refuted Görner's view of a "colossal mis-development". The new organization and updating of many occupations played a vital role in meeting training place requirements and ensuring future-oriented training provision. Furthermore, it was an established fact that all training occupations covered both technical and basic competences. Apart from sector-specific occupations, there were also many transversal occupations with cross-sectoral elements. On the other hand, the confederations of industry expressly welcomed the readiness to accept partial qualifications and training components mentioned by the DGB. In their eyes, this offered a chance to create training and employment opportunities for those young people who were not yet ready to cope with a regular three-year training course. For further information:
Source: DGB/KWB/CEDEFOP/SK |
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