Attractive vocational education and training via quality assurance –chambers, schools and companies demonstrate example

The attractiveness of vocational education and training needs to be maintained and strengthened against the background of an impending shortage of skilled workers in an ageing society, increasing academisation of educational pathways and growing matching problems in trainee recruitment. With this in mind, the title chosen by the German National Reference Point for Quality Assurance in Vocational Training (DEQA-VET) for its 6th Annual Conference to be staged at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) on 1 October is “Attractiveness of vocational education and training via quality assurance”. “The securing and development of high quality standards in vocational education and training plays a major role in the attractiveness of dual training”, stresses BIBB Deputy President Reinhold Weiß. The intention of DEQA-VET is to tailor its conference, which is aimed at practitioners, experts and further VET stakeholders, more closely to vocational education and training practice.

Events will include a workshop for representatives of the chambers and trade unions at which the German Qualifications Framework will be explored as a driving force for securing the quality of vocational training.

Projects will also present successfully piloted quality assurance instruments. One example here is a “Guide to training quality” jointly developed by the Central Agency for Continuing Vocational Education and Training in the Skilled Crafts and the Hanover Chamber of Crafts and Trades which contains diagnosis sheets to identify the status quo of training quality and tried and tested development instruments for companies providing training.

The Lake Constance-Upper Swabia Chamber of Industry and Commerce will explain its “Holistic written record of training”, a quality development instrument that replaces the conventional training report book and is already being widely used within the chamber district.
Practice representatives from the field of quality assurance at vocational schools will report on their experiences with the quality management system “Quality through evaluation and development“”(Q2E). This has its origins in Switzerland and aims to integrate the characteristic properties of school-based educational processes into the quality strategy. Insights into the exchange of information and experiences that occurs between federal states working with Q2E will also be provided.
The DEQA-VET Reference Point is seeking to use this conference as a vehicle to foster a stronger network with VET stakeholders and to generate impetuses which are directly beneficial to quality assurance, development and practical implementation in vocational teaching and learning.

Registration for the conference is available immediately at www.deqa-vet.de. Participation is free of charge.

Background information

DEQA-VET works on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to achieve networking between stakeholders and institutions involved in vocational education and training in Germany. It acts as a contact point and service agency for topics related to quality assurance and development in vocational education and training by bundling information and expert surveys, instigating initiatives and projects and staging events. Its objective is to create a network of VET participants, including the social partners, companies, vocational schools, full-time vocational schools, providers and certifying bodies of advanced and continuing VET, VET research, policymaking and federal state administrative bodies, and to take on an intermediary role between the national and European level. In its capacity as a National Reference Point, DEQA-VET forms part of the European EQAVET Network. For further information, please visit www.deqa-vet.de .

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