In the Duales Ausbildungssystem, students can learn one of 250 (as of 2022) apprenticeship occupations (Ausbildungsberufe), such as Doctor's Assistant, Dispensing Optician or Oven Builder. The precise skills and theory taught are strictly regulated and defined by national standards: An Industriekaufmann (Industrial Manager) has always acquired the same skills and taken the same courses in production planning, accounting and controlling, marketing, HR management, trade laws, etc.[3] Especially in southern Germany this model is also used for a special college system called Duale Hochschule.[4]
In France, dual education (formation en alternance) has gained a lot of popularity since the 1990s, with information technology being the greatest draw.[5] The Dual Education system in France, also known as the "Alternance" system, is an approach to learning where students alternate between periods of academic studies and work experience. This hybrid model of education and vocational training is designed to give students both practical knowledge and theoretical skills, providing a comprehensive understanding of their chosen field.[6]
In South Korea, the German and Swiss dual apprenticeship system was studied and implemented by then President Park Geun-hye to address South Korea's more glaring employment needs including tackling the country's high youth employment rate and as well as reforming South Korea's entire education system.[7] Since the rise of Meister schools and modern reforms through the implementation of vocational education in the South Korean education system, graduates from vocational high schools have been successful in navigating through South Korea's highly competitive and sluggish job market as they possess relevant skill sets that are in high demand in the South Korean economy.[8]
In Germany, the dual education system formally emerged after the passage of the Vocational Training Act of 1969. A description of its functioning and value is given in Pritchard (1992),[9] It was significantly enhanced by reforms in 2005.[10] Historically, vocational training was organized by the various guilds through apprenticeships, as their members sought to ensure that they had a talented labor pool to perpetuate their respective industries.[11] The Vocational Training Act codified and standardized this system across Germany, serving as the foundation upon which the state, the private sector, and trade unions could effectively coordinate to deliver the dual system for a modern Germany.[10] This high level of coordination allowed for the development of public education programs and firm specific apprenticeships that are complementary and mutually reinforcing.
Apprenticeship section
As one part of the dual education course, students are trained in a company for three to five days a week. The company is responsible for ensuring that students get the standard quantity and quality of training set down in the training descriptions for each trade.
In Germany, this practical training may be complemented by more practical lessons at workshops run by the guilds and chamber of commerce, in order to compensate for the bias caused by training at only one company. These extra courses usually take three or four weeks a year. The time spent at vocational school is approximately 60 days a year, in blocks of one or two weeks at a time spread out over the year.
In France, the same amount of time is supposed to be spent in practical training and theory, with the following possible systems:
3 days in a company, 2 days at school,
one week in a company, one week at school,
three months in a company, three months at school
six months in a company, six months at school.
French companies must provide a tutor or other person responsible for the students, or a human resources officer to deal with them. Their duties may involve daily tutoring and/or targeted training. French apprentices on the dual education course are paid a certain percentage of the minimum wage for the job they are learning.
School section
The other part of the dual education course involves lessons at a vocational school (German: Berufsschule). The responsibility for this part of the course lies with the school authorities in every German state or Swiss canton. Both general lessons (for example German, politics, economics, religion or even sport) and trade-specific theory are taught.
Lessons may be taught part-time (one or two days a week) or in blocks of several weeks. The latter is preferred for trades learned by only a small number of students, where students may have to travel long distances to get to the nearest vocational school which teaches their subject.
Testing
In Germany, for most trades, the first examination takes place about half-way through the vocational training and is only to test how well the student is doing so far: the marks do not go towards the final exam. Both exams are organised by the small business trade group and chamber of commerce and industry. Examinations for trained artisans are traditionally known as journeyman's tests (Gesellenprüfung).
Examinations for trades which have been recognised more recently are organised slightly differently. Here, the first examination counts as 40% of the total result, with the final examination making up the other 60%.
Those who fail the exam can apply to have their training extended until the following year when they can retake it. Only one extension is allowed.
Advantages
The student is an employee of the company from the beginning and receives tasks that are according to their growing abilities. If a company is willing to make an employment-contract with the student after their dual education time, the company gets an employee who knows the company's workflow. The student can also benefit from the knowledge about both hard and soft skills of more experienced co-workers. The student develops under real conditions. Therefore, they can see if they are not able or willing to do this job quite early and not only after exams. Furthermore, the student earns money from the beginning.
Given that students in dual education systems receive high quality vocational training and education, they are well prepared to enter the job market at a young age, and the firms that participate in their training are more willing to hire them when they graduate.[12] As a consequence, Germany has the lowest rate of youth unemployment in the European Union, and Austria has similarly low rates.[13] Furthermore, the system effectively provides huge savings for firms on recruitment costs, as they are aware of and invested in the skills of potential hires.[10] It is also seen as a contributor to the economic success of Germany's world renowned firms, as the highly skilled workforce can contribute directly to improvements in production and service delivery.[12]
Disadvantages
Although the dual education system is generally considered to be exemplary, more young people are taking vocational education and training courses at training sites and schools rather than in real companies, as they are becoming less willing to take on apprentices for various reasons. The Cabinet of Germany considered making it compulsory for firms to take on apprentices. The idea was dropped when the trade associations agreed to a voluntary training pact.
Companies that take on apprentices have to follow many regulations, and the training itself is very expensive.
Requirements for several positions have become more complex and many high school graduates do not provide the right level of education. The less complex positions have only graduates with very little education are willing to do it, and even they are not able to keep up with the course.
Also, companies are often highly specialized and unable to train apprentices in all the required areas.
Two solutions put forward so far are "contractual education" (Auftragsausbildung) and state-run courses. The former would involve companies training apprentices that they do not plan to employ; the contract would also not be an employment contract. The latter would involve training outside companies: in schools and colleges.
Switzerland also has more and more young people finding it hard to get a place in a company of their choice.[citation needed] In 2004, a conference took place and was attended by all the parties in the Swiss Federal Council; as no agreement could be reached on which measures to take, the only result was a call for all companies to take on apprentices.[citation needed]
The lack of places has changed the conditions in which apprentices are taken on. In 2004, one new company even advertised apprenticeships in information technology in which apprentices had to pay for the training themselves. The uproar was so great, however, that the company was not able to start up.
Today, most apprentices have to take aptitude tests before they are accepted, and the company can usually choose from several candidates.[citation needed]
Difficulties in exporting dual education
Although the dual education system seems promising at partnering future employees with potential jobs in their industry, it does not mean every country can simply create a dual education system within their borders. The system is successful in Germany because VET (the model for dual education) is regulated and strongly funded by both the federal government and German states and works closely with the German industry for maximum success.[14] The model is unlikely to easily be adapted in other countries for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the high degree of success can be attributed to Germany's long-historical culture of apprenticeships. This system was grown in Germany over a period of time under very specific conditions and cannot easily be adapted in other modernized countries.[15] One important degree of the dual education system is the high standard of education provided by the German government in Germany. This allows apprentices to not only specialize early on but maintain the basic education needed to react flexibly in the future. Another important aspect is that in other developed or developing countries, large social problems exist which prevent the creation or minimize the effectiveness of a potential dual education system. High-college costs and economic inequality mean that the local government must provide even more for certain individuals to succeed for the system to work.[16] Finally, the long culture of apprenticeship makes sense in Germany but produces social stigmas in other foreign nations as it is seen as inferior as opposed to the traditional educational pathway.
Present-day dual education
Today's system of dual education in Germany functions by cooperation between small and medium companies. Cooperation is regulated by law and employers and trade unions are responsible for creating new training regulations. Since certificates are standardized across all industries, the dual education system ensures that apprentices receive the same training regardless of region or company.[17] Employers trust the certificates since they provide evidence of an individual's knowledge. There is also a shared responsibility between the government, employers and trade unions which helps in responding to digital landscapes or changing job markets which impact how effective future employees may be in the future job market. Dual education was designed to make it easier for employers seeking new employees by allowing them to test potential candidates as apprentices and create a smoother flow for the hiring process.[14] Good schools are a critical factor to this system as they better prepare candidates for changing job conditions. The dual education system is not perfect and flaws do exist. Although creating specialization through early vocational training and apprenticeships programs can have its advantages, disadvantages also exist. As change accelerates in many industries, the skills of an individual apprentice become obsolete faster.[16] Apprentices can excel early on in the job market but a lack of general skills and lifetime learning in new jobs cause them to do worse later on. Nonetheless, the dual education system is still very effective in stifling unemployment especially among the youth.
Future of the dual education system
The modern era of rapid economic and technological change has expanded the role of the dual education system in the labor force. Increasingly, older workers are making use of the system to gain new skills in the ever-evolving labor market.[18] This is known as Continuous Vocational Educational Training, or CVET.[19] Given the robustness of the systems in Germany, Austria, and other similar countries, dual education may help these countries adapt more quickly to ongoing economic transformation.[18]
Vocational education is education that prepares people for a skilled craft as an artisan, trade as a tradesperson, or work as a technician. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with requisite skill. Vocational education is known by a variety of names, depending on the country concerned, including career and technical education, or acronyms such as TVET and TAFE.
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulated occupation. Most of their training is done while working for an employer who helps the apprentices learn their trade or profession, in exchange for their continued labor for an agreed period after they have achieved measurable competencies.
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did rougher work such as framing, but today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry. In the United States, 98.5% of carpenters are male, and it was the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the country in 1999. In 2006 in the United States, there were about 1.5 million carpentry positions. Carpenters are usually the first tradesmen on a job and the last to leave. Carpenters normally framed post-and-beam buildings until the end of the 19th century; now this old-fashioned carpentry is called timber framing. Carpenters learn this trade by being employed through an apprenticeship training—normally four years—and qualify by successfully completing that country's competence test in places such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and South Africa. It is also common that the skill can be learned by gaining work experience other than a formal training program, which may be the case in many places.
A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee. They earn their license by education, supervised experience and examination. Although journeymen have completed a trade certificate and are allowed to work as employees, they may not yet work as self-employed master craftsmen.
Education in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter with each of the countries of the United Kingdom having separate systems under separate governments. The UK Government is responsible for England, whilst the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive are responsible for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.
Education in Germany is primarily the responsibility of individual German states, with the federal government only playing a minor role.
Historically, a master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. The title survives as the highest professional qualification in craft industries.
A vocational school, trade school, or technical school is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary or post-secondary education designed to provide vocational education or technical skills required to complete the tasks of a particular and specific job. In the case of secondary education, these schools differ from academic high schools which usually prepare students who aim to pursue tertiary education, rather than enter directly into the workforce. With regard to post-secondary education, vocational schools are traditionally distinguished from four-year colleges by their focus on job-specific training to students who are typically bound for one of the skilled trades, rather than providing academic training for students pursuing careers in a professional discipline. While many schools have largely adhered to this convention, the purely vocational focus of other trade schools began to shift in the 1990s "toward a broader preparation that develops the academic" as well as the technical skills of their students.
The term German model is most often used in economics to describe post-World War II West Germany's means of using innovative industrial relations, vocational training, and closer relationships between the financial and industrial sectors to cultivate economic prosperity. The two key components of the German model is a national system for certifying industrial and artisan skills, as well as full union participation in the oversight of plant-based vocation training.
Higher education in Japan is provided at universities, junior colleges, colleges of technology and special training schools and community colleges. Of these four types of institutions, only universities and junior colleges are strictly considered postsecondary education providers. The modern Japanese higher education system has undergone numerous changes since the Meiji period and was largely modeled after Western countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and the United States of America combined with traditional Japanese pedagogical elements to create a unique Japanese model to serve its national needs. The Japanese higher education system differs from higher education in most other countries in many significant ways. Key differences include the method of acceptance, which relies almost entirely on one or two tests, as opposed to the usage of GPAs or percentages or other methods of assessment and evaluation of prospective applicants used in countries throughout the Western world. As students only have one chance to take this test each year, there is an enormous amount of pressure to perform well on it, as the majority of the time during a student's senior high school years is dedicated to performing well on this single test. Japanese high school students are faced with immense pressure to succeed academically from their parents, extended family members, teachers, guidance counselors, peers, and society at large. This mindset is largely based on a result of a traditional society that has historically placed an enormous amount of importance on the encouragement of study on top of the merits of scholarship and benefits of pursuing higher education, especially in an education system that places all of its weight upon a single examination that has significant life-long consequences on one's eventual socioeconomic status, promising marriage prospects, entrance into a prestigiously elite white-collar occupation, and a respectable professional career path.
An auto mechanic is a mechanic who services and repairs automobiles, sometimes specializing in one or more automobile brands or sometimes working with any brand. In fixing cars, their main role is to diagnose and repair the problem accurately and quickly. Seasoned auto repair shops start with a (Digital) Inspection to determine the vehicle conditions, independent of the customers concern. Based on the concern, the inspection results and preventative maintenance needs, the mechanic/technician returns the findings to the service advisor who then gets approval for any or all of the proposed work. The approved work will be assigned to the mechanic on a work order. Their work may involve the repair of a specific part or the replacement of one or more parts as assemblies. Basic vehicle maintenance is a fundamental part of a mechanic's work in modern industrialized countries, while in others they are only consulted when a vehicle is already showing signs of malfunction.
Apprentices mobility is the movement of students and teachers in vocational education or training (VET) to another institution inside or outside their own country to study or teach for a limited time. The term is usually used in the context of European Union (EU) policy.
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority serves as the Philippines' Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) authority. As a government agency, TESDA is tasked to both manage and supervise the Philippines' Technical Education and Skills Development (TESD). Its goals are to develop the Filipino workforce with "world-class competence and positive work values" and to provide quality technical-educational and skills development through its direction, policies, and programs.
Highbury College is a further education college in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It offers vocational and academic education and training, including apprenticeships, A-levels and foundation degrees.
Vocational education in the United States varies from state to state. Vocational schools or tech schools are post-secondary schools that teach the skills necessary to help students acquire jobs in specific industries. The majority of postsecondary career education is provided by proprietary (privately-owned) career institutions. About 30 percent of all credentials in teaching are provided by two-year community colleges, which also offer courses transferable to four-year universities. Other programs are offered through military teaching or government-operated adult education centers.
Australian Industry Trade College (AITC) - RTO 31775, is an independent, senior school for young people located in Robina, Cleveland and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Students in Years 10, 11 and 12 undertake school-based apprenticeships or traineeships which include paid work placements and the opportunity to complete vocational education training in the student's chosen area.
Apprenticeships have a long tradition in the United Kingdom, dating back to around the 12th century. They flourished in the 14th century and were expanded during the industrial revolution. In modern times, apprenticeships were formalised in 1964 by act of parliament and they continue to be in widespread use to this day.
Apprenticeship programs in the United States are regulated by the Smith–Hughes Act (1917), The National Industrial Recovery Act (1933), and National Apprenticeship Act, also known as the "Fitzgerald Act."
Apprenticeships are part of Germany's dual education system, and as such form an integral part of many people's working life. Finding employment without having completed an apprenticeship is almost impossible. For some particular technical university professions, such as food technology, a completed apprenticeship is often recommended; for some, such as marine engineering it may even be mandatory.
The job event technology specialist or event technician is an occupation acquired with a state recognized apprenticeship. Its focal points are the assembly, dismantling and implementation of technical parts of different kinds of events.
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