The quality of vocational education immediately after high school in Germany depends on cooperation between schools and companies as partners in the vocational education ‘Dual System’. If this system is to remain efficient in the future, current problems need to be solved. Therefore, a new concept of cooperation is introduced. This concept considers regional potential and opportunities for development and incorporates other local investors besides the traditional partners of the ‘Dual System’.
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References
1.
‘Regional vocational education dialogues’ were first encouraged by Heidegger and Rauner. See HeideggerG.RaunerF., Reformbedarf in der beruflichen Bildung, in Gutachten pro Ausbildung, Ausbildungskonsens NRW, Reformbedarf in der beruflichen Bildung, NRW (Ministry for Trade and Medium-Sized Industry, Technology and Transport of the Federal State of North-Rhine Westphalia), Düsseldorf, 1997.
2.
EickerF.HartmannM., ‘Regional Education and Innovation Cooperation Groups – a contribution towards the modernization of technical education’, paper presented at International EGTB-/NAITTE-/WOCATE Working Seminar on Outcomes of Technology Education for 2000+ – A Focus of Learning, George Washington University, Washington, DC, 25 September 1998.
3.
See EickerF., ‘Kooperationspartner Berufsschule – Beitragsmöglichkeiten zur Entwicklung des regionalen Innovationspotentials – Ein Beispiel aus Bremen’, Die berufsbildende Schule, Vol 43, No 6, 1991, pp 355 ff.
4.
GrünerG., ‘Didaktische Gewerbeförderung …’, Die berufsbildende Schule, Vol 33, No 11, 1981, pp 625 f.
5.
See EickerF.MeyerR., Berufsschule für Elektrotechnik … mitten in Bremen! BfE … ein Technisches Bildungszentrum!, Förderverein an der Berufsschule für Elektrotechnik Bremen eV, 1990.
6.
See, for example, Modernisierungsbedarf und Innovationsfähigkeit der beruflichen Bildung, proceedings of conference held on 11 December 1995, Research Institute of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Labour and Social Research Department, Bonn1996; or the Secretariat of the Permanent Conference of the Ministers of Education and Culture of the German Federal States, documentation on the summit talks on the ‘Further Development of the Dual System of Vocational Education’ between the Conference of Ministers of Education and Culture and representatives of the Federal Government, of the specialist ministers' conferences of the Länder, industry, the trade unions and teachers' federations (held on 22–23 May1997 in Wolfsburg, Bonn).
7.
Ideas in this regard can be found in, for example, documentation on the pilot study entitled ‘Organizational developments in vocational education’ conducted from 1993 to 1996 at the Carl von Ossietzky School Centre for Industrial Teaching Programmes in Bremerhaven. See Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Senator for Education and Science, Interim and Final Reports on the pilot study, Bremen, 1994 to 1997.
8.
This statement is based on my many years of experience as principal of a vocational school, summarized in an unpublished paper entitled ‘BfE und Innovation – … zerschlagen wir den Knoten, der uns an dem Sprung in eine neue Qualität hindert!’, Bremen 1993 (available on request). I regard the statement as being supported by the literature: See LengenM., Schulrat und Innovation, Handlungsspielräume der unteren Schulaufsicht, Aurich, 1989. The various experiments for providing the vocational school with greater autonomy (for example, in the 1995–96 Bremen project entitled ‘Autonomere berufliche Schulen’) follow, in particular, the proposals first taken up in North-Rhine Westphalia
9.
see DalinP.RolffH.-G.BuchenH., Institutioneller Schulentwicklungsprozeß – Ein Handbuch, Bönen/Westfalen1996.
10.
These ideas concerning new activities and cooperation between the vocational schools and industry were intended to be followed up in the pilot study entitled ‘Continuous self-organization of innovations in the vocational school–company cooperation group (KONSIL) using the example of the new profession of “Process control electronics specialist” – contribution towards a new duality in vocational training’, conducted from 1995 to 1999 by the Berufsschule für Elektrotechnik und der Stahlwerke GmbH in Bremen. See EickerF.EhrlichK., ‘Neue Dualität: Berufsschule und Betriebe streben eine veränderte Zusammenarbeit an’, in JeneweinK., ed, Fachtagung Elektrotechnik und Metalltechnik. Bildung und Beruf – Wege zur Entwicklung von Handlungskompetenz in der dualen Berufsausbildung, Neusäß, 1996, pp 92 ff; and the Interim and Final reports on the pilot study, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Senator for Education, Science, Art and Sport, Bremen, 1996 to 1999.
11.
See EickerF., ‘Modernisierungsbedarf und Innovationsfähigkeit des dualen Systems der (gewerblich-technischen) beruflichen Bildung – Thesen’, in Research Institute of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, op cit, Ref 6, pp 23 ff.
12.
See Meyer'sR.Literature compilation ‘Gebäudeautomation und Technische Bildung – eine Literaturzusammenstellung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Schriften zur Handwerk/Universität/Schule – Zentrum für Gebäudeautomation Gemeinnützige GmbH’, in EickerF., ed, Technik - Gebäudeautomation - Maritime Elektronik - Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik und Technische Bildung – erste Schritte zu einem regionalorientierten Lehren und Lernen, Rostock1999, pp 148 ff.
13.
For greater detail on the points in this section, see EickerHartmann, op cit, Ref 2.
14.
The development of a ‘learning region’ is offered as a perspective of modern vocational education. See HeideggerRauner, op cit, Ref 1, pp 7 ff
15.
The ‘learning region’ certainly requires a broader identity for it to become a model for technical education. I have attempted to make a contribution in this regard using the example of building automation: See EickerF., ‘Technische Bildung zur Gebäudeautomation im Kontext regionaler Entwicklung’, in RaunerF.StuberF., eds, Berufsbildung für die Facharbeit in der Elektro- und Informationstechnik, Bremen1999, pp 59 ff.
16.
GnahsD., ‘Die lernende Region als Bezugspunkt regionaler Weiterbildungspolitik’, in DobischatR.HusemannR., eds, Berufliche Bildung in der Region. Zur Neubewertung einer bildungspolitischen Gestaltungsdimension, Berlin1997, pp 25 ff.
17.
For more detail, see EickerHartmann, op cit, Ref 2.
18.
The experiment is entitled ‘Regional Technical and Innovation Cooperation Groups (ReTeBI) – a contribution to reorientation in (industrial-technical) vocational education’. Details of the experiment, particularly with regard to the points set out in Table 1, can be found in the pilot project design (available on request from the author).
