1994

A feature of teacher training in Germany is its high degree of professionalization: it is on the same level with other studies, such as medicine. University education includes not only a specialization in technology, but also studies in pedagogy. An essential factor is the close connection with the future professional career, achieved by teaching practice in parallel with university education. This comprehensive approach to teacher training runs the risk, however, that students can later find employment only at schools or similar institutions. Employment as an engineer, for example, is rendered impossible because design work does not take a central position during studies for the teaching profession. There are standards throughout the country for university studies for the teaching professions, enabling graduates to find positions in any of the states. The teacher training program may change, however, as it becomes increasingly necessary to make university degrees compatible throughout the European Community. At present, it is impossible for graduates of universities in other countries to become teachers in Germany because of the state examinations required. (KC)

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2017

The Australasian Journal of TechnologyEducation is a peer refereed journal, and provides a forum for scholarly discussion on topics relating to technology education. Submissions are welcomed relating to the primary, secondary and higher education sectors, initial teacher education and continuous professional development, and general research about Technology Education. Contributions to the ongoing research debate are encouraged from any country. The expectation is that the Journal will publish articles at the leading edge of development of the subject area. The Journal seeks to publish • reports of research, • articles based on action research by practitioners, • literature reviews, and • book reviews.

International Journal of Training Research, 2004

The German education system has recently come under fire with the publication of various international studies on student performance (OECD 2000; 2003). And in the first national 'Education Report' (Bildungsbericht) published in October 2003 (Avenarius et al. 2003), the German ministers of education point out serious deficiencies in the country's school system, with too many drop-outs, too few achievers of higher education entrance qualifications and too little support for students coming from poorer families. However, in a remarkable common press declaration released on 17 September 2003, the ministers of education in Austria, Switzerland and the three southern federal states1 deplored the fact that studies such as the recent OECD paper (OECD 2003) tend to neglect or completely ignore the overall significance of formal apprenticeships, which are not only the most striking common educational feature of the three German-speaking countries, but are also the learning pathway for the 'ordinary school leaver'. The ministers claimed that the 'Dual System' with its apprenticeship focus, offers viable and well-accepted routes into skilled employment and modes of socialisation without being part of the formal education system, and they eventually appealed to the OECD to 'accept and investigate the status of vocational education'. This debate, which is also fostered by the announcement of the German Federal Government's determination to substantially increase the number of students entering higher education, brings into focus the tendency in Germany to stick to established modes and practices by valueing 'continuance of tradition' (Phillips 1995, p. 61). It also throws new light

Australasian Journal of Technology Education, 2017

The Australasian Journal of TechnologyEducation is a peer refereed journal, and provides a forum for scholarly discussion on topics relating to technology education. Submissions are welcomed relating to the primary, secondary and higher education sectors, initial teacher education and continuous professional development, and general research about Technology Education. Contributions to the ongoing research debate are encouraged from any country. The expectation is that the Journal will publish articles at the leading edge of development of the subject area. The Journal seeks to publish • reports of research, • articles based on action research by practitioners, • literature reviews, and • book reviews.

Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 1997

This article provides a detailed and accessible account of the contemporary structure of the German system for vocational education and training and of some of the main issues and concerns causing current stresses within it. First, we outline the so-called dual system for initial vocational training and the manner in which it is underpinned by the general education system. A number of difficulties threaten the continuation of the dual system in its present form, the most important of which are increasing pressures for the differentiation of, and for greater flexibility in, training provision, and also for restructuring of the system's costs and funding. Secondly, this article describes the much less regulated and discussed field of provision for continuing vocational training and identifies further current troubles affecting this sphere, such as imperfect knowledge and quality, access problems, and-again-the funding of such training.

Germany has been facing a few challenges in recent years in terms of its education and training systems. In General Education, the PISA studies (e.g. OECD 2000) have led to a serious discussion on both the quality of learning and teaching in schools as well as to a new debate around the "selectivity" of the so-called "three-tier system" which is composed of lower, intermediate and higher secondary schools. On the other hand, the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system seemed to be able to ward off any severe criticism as there has always been much praise and even admiration from other countries for the apprenticeship system, the so-called Dual System, from politicians and scholars alike. This admiration has been specifically present in the Anglo-Saxon world (e.g., Prais 1981; Raggatt 1988; Keating et al 2002) where attempts to revive or restructure apprenticeships as major pathways into skilled employment have not always been successful (Ryan 2001; Deissinger 2003; Harris/Deissinger 2003). Comparative research has revealed that vocational training systems are determined by a specific "philosophy" or "intrinsic logic" which gives them the character of "black boxes," as they have to be understood "in relation to other societal institutions" including the labour

Prospects, 1999

International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work, 2009

Prospects, 1999

Economist and co-ordinator of decentralized programmes at the IIEP. Director of its programme on policies and strategies in secondary education. She has recently published a book entitled Science education and development: planning and policy issues (1997). She has also published numerous works on technical education and vocational training, and on trends in educational planning and regional schools' requirements.