Encouraging permeability in vocational education and training!

The absence until now of any standardised system to describe and accredit learning achievements in vocational education and training has meant that trainees making the move from school-based vocational training to in-company VET or switching from one training occupation to another have often encountered difficulties in acquiring recognition for existing learning outcomes. The aim of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) pilot initiative for the development of a credit system for vocational education and training is to put this deficiency right. Improvements in permeability and in the accreditation of competences have the potential to increase the attractiveness of vocational learning pathways and will especially assist in the avoidance of waiting loops, redundant qualifications and educational “dead ends".

The aim of the initiative is to use ten pilot projects to serve as a vehicle for the development and testing of transferable procedures for the accreditation of competences and learning outcomes. These procedures will then permit improvements to be made in terms of mobility and permeability within the educational system as a whole and between different parts of the system. The objectives here are to make it possible to open up new educational pathways, to structure such pathways in a more permeable manner, to help establish better links between the various forms of learning and to encourage cooperation between educational institutions. The initiative is aligned towards the main characteristics of the German VET system (including dual system of vocational education and training, the concept of the regulated occupation and the German Vocational Training Act) and is linked to existing programmes and projects focussing on the accreditation and assessment of competences within the German educational system. DECVET also accords consideration to benchmarks and general prevailing conditions which have been established at a European level (such as the European Qualifications Framework and the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training).