Germany, Switzerland and Austria – Together for Dual VET

Practical vocational training oriented towards the needs of the labor market is an important topic in many countries.

How can countries be supported in reforming their education systems and benefit as much as possible from the experience of leading vocational training institutions in Switzerland, Austria and Germany?

This was the topic of the European-Asien-Pacific Dialogue Forum at Didac Asia 2024 mid-October in Bangkok.

This event was the first time, the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET)and the ibw Austria –Research & Development in VET presented their joint advisory services as Alliance for Dual VET - Swiss-Austrian-German advisory services.

This offer is intended to support countries in organizing their vocational training in a more practical way, closer to the needs of the labor market.

The ambassadors to Thailand from Germany, Dr. Ernst Wolfgang Reichel, Austria, Mag. Wilhelm Donko and Switzerland, Pedro Zwahlen, each opened the forum with a welcoming address.

In their welcoming speeches, they emphasized the success factors of the dual VET system, pointed out the specifics of the structure in the three countries and welcomed the promising association of the three leading institutions in VET to establish the Alliance for Dual VET.

In the following keynote speech, Michael Wiechert (Head of BIBB's International Advisory Services, Cooperation with Partner Institutions Division) spoke about the challenges for inclusive, flexible and excellent VET.

Bettina Janssen (Senior Advisor, BIBB), Erik Swars (Head of international relations, SFUVET) and Kurt Schmid (Senior Advisor, ibw) presented the advisory services in the five fields of Governance of VET, Work based learning - WBL, Competence-oriented standards and curricula in VET, Training of VET staff and Institutionalised VET research, illustrated with project examples for each field. This was followed by a round of questions with the participants, which was continued in the World Café.

With reference to the current situation of vocational training in Thailand, the participants asked in particular about suitable incentive systems to increase the willingness of companies to provide training. Another topic was financing options for practical training.

Alliance for Dual VET - Swiss-Austrian-German advisory services

Alliance for Dual VET - Swiss-Austrian-German advisory services

Switzerland, Austria and Germany are all well known for highly effective, efficient and innovative VET systems which are aligned to labour-market requirements. Since 2007, BIBB, SFUVET and ibw have been cooperating in various formats on a wide range of VET issues.

In 2023, the three institutions joined forces to form the Alliance for Dual VET - Swiss-Austrian-German advisory services in order to expand their cooperation to include joint advisory projects on the core elements of dual VET. The aim is to support countries in reforming their VET systems and integrating dual elements into their education systems.

Each of the three institutions already offers global expertise on VET topics from the perspectives of business, politics, science and practice, but with different focuses.

The Alliance for Dual VET aims to utilize synergies for international advisory services, to strengthen dual VET at an international level and make it more visible through joint activities.