Dual study programmes in Germany: blurring the boundaries between higher education and vocational training?

ABSTRACT

Triggered by rising higher education (HE) participation rates in recent years there is an intense debate in Germany regarding the future value of vocational education and training (VET). While VET in Germany has traditionally been a major contributor to the successful transition of young people from school to the labour market, this role is questioned by an increasing proportion of school leavers that enter HE instead of initial VET.

This paper introduces this debate to the international readership by analysing the available data and by discussing some of the implications of the current changes. For instance, there are a number of studies that identify the fields and types of VET that are in danger of being substituted by HE provision, assuming a competitive relationship between the two sectors. However, there is also growing interest in programmes that aim to combine vocational and academic learning in so-called ‘dual study programmes’, taking a complementary perspective of VET and HE. The analysis will lead to conclusions regarding the future shape of upper secondary and tertiary education in Germany and the links of different education sectors to the labour market.

KEYWORDS:

• VET
• Germany
• dual study programmes
• higher education
• dual system

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This is not necessarily the same as 48,000 employers collaborating as this data is collected from the HE institutions who are asked how many company collaborations they have. Therefore, an employer who collaborates with more than one HE institution will be counted more than once. It should also be noted that HE institutions report data to AusbildungPlus on a voluntary basis. This means that there might exist programmes that are not reported (BIBB, 2018). However, AusbildungPlus is widely regarded as the only database that provides an overview of the quantitative development of dual study programmes over time.

2. In 2009, vocational academies in Baden-Württemberg merged to form the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW). For the purposes of this paper, the DHBW is included in the figures of the category vocational academies.

3. In 2016, the remaining 222 programmes were classified as ‘mixed’, combining elements of both of the models outlined.

4. In March 2018, the three parties who form the coalition government at Federal level agreed on establishing minimum training salaries for training in the dual system (Koalitionsvertrag, 2018). At the time of writing (August 2019), however, the introduction of the minimum training salary is still the subject of a heated debate.

5. The report by Hofmann and König (2018) provides a picture of the regional uptake of dual study programmes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hubert Ertl

Hubert Ertl is Vice-President and Director of Research at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Bonn, Germany. He was formerly Associate Professor of Higher Education at the Oxford University Department of Education. His research focuses on areas including transitions between vocational and university-level education, international comparative research on higher education, European education and training policy, and the introduction and implementation of reforms in vocational education and training. He is editor of the journal Research in Comparative and International Education and co-editor of the leading German journal Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik.