Science and Education

Two thirds of all adolescents in Germany enter into a course of vocational training after completing their compulsory school education. As this training is conducted at two places of learning, at vocational school and in a company, in Germany we call it the "dual system". The aim of the training, which usually lasts for three years, is for the students to receive basic general and vocational education and to acquire the skills of a qualified skilled worker.
The German vocational school system is highly differentiated and is broken down into a large number of school types (see below) and disciplines. It has been deliberately designed to be so permeable that graduates of vocational schools still have access to qualifications for polytechnic and university.
Currently apprentices in Germany can choose between 355 recognised apprenticeship careers that are assigned to 68 job groups. The disciplines taught in most vocational schools are commercial, clerical, domestic or agricultural. The young people learn in companies on two to three days, and at the vocational schools on up to two days per week. The companies, who have signed up to nationally standard codes of training, bear the costs of training. Companies in the private sector, the public service, medical practices, freelance professions and private households offer apprenticeships. Depending on the sector, after they have passed their exams the apprentices are given certification as a skilled worker, clerk or journeyman. The exams are taken in front of the relevant chambers, such as the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Chambers of the Free Professions or the Chamber of Skilled Crafts.
Once a graduate of a vocational school has acquired around three years of experiences in his or her apprenticeship career, he or she can start further training at the so-called trade and technical school. In one to three years here he or she acquires the ability and the right to open up a company in his or her discipline and to train the next generation in the job.
Every year the ruling education politicians adopt the so-called Vocational Training Report. It is compiled on the basis of current analyses of the apprenticeship and labour market and documents the education policy measures in the coming government year. In the Vocational Training Report 2002 Federal Education Minister Edelgard Bulmahn announced the provision of sufficient apprenticeships for society's long-term needs. Although there were more apprenticeships than applicants in 2001 in the federal territory as a whole, the apprenticeship market is marked by imbalance in two respects. On the one hand the apprenticeship offers vary greatly from region to region. Whereas there was a surplus of offers in the west of Germaqny, in the new Länder the offer met only around 60 per cent of demand. On the other, there is an imbalance between apprenticeship applicants and disciplines. A lack of apprenticeships for vehicle mechanics, office clerks and media designers contrasts with a lack of applicants for specialist food sales staff, butchers and dental assistants.
Various state special programmes and funding programmes are designed to improve the apprenticeship situation in the east and to encourage the mobility of the young people seeking apprenticeships.However, the biggest challenges for current vocational training policy are the transition from an industrial society to the information and service society as well as employability of older employed people. The Federal Government is responding to the former by modernising and developing apprenticeships oriented to industry's current need for skilled workers. In the last three years 43 apprenticeship careers have been updated and 10 new careers created. By mid-2002 the apprenticeship codes for 19 other careers are expected.
In order to maintain the employability of older employed people in a working world where qualification requirements change at an ever quicker pace, lifelong further training is gaining in importance. The Federal Education Ministry has therefore made € 250 million available for the "Lifelong Learning for All" action programme.

"School types" for vocational education in Germany

• Vocational school - provides part-time general and vocational teaching within the context of dual system vocational training
• Higher vocational school - allows graduates of vocational training to gain university entrance qualifications in the dual system
• Full-time vocational school - used for preparation for work or vocational training with different levels of qualification
• Vocational grammar school - in addition to general academic subject also teaches vocational subjects such as economics and technology and leads to general university entrance qualification
• Higher trade and technical school - after technical-practical training in companies and supplementary teaching leads to polytechnic entrance qualification
• Trade and technical school - requires initial vocational training and several years' work experience and leads to a higher vocational qualification.

In-company training for a recognised apprenticeship career in the dual system is governed by statutory ordinances issued by the Federal Government. An overview of all recognised apprenticeship careers and their requirements can be found below.