“With this format, we are presenting the successful model of German training. Vocational education, with its workplace-oriented and process-oriented structure, already enjoys a high international reputation. Together with the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, we want to strengthen that reputation further by presenting our system to international partners through film.”
In a variety of sequences, the 12-minute documentary presents essential elements of German vocational training, including cooperation between government and industry, the principle of two places of learning, and nationally recognized vocational qualifications. Filming took place on location at German companies, vocational schools, chambers and cooperation partners in Italy and Turkey. Using practical examples and comments from trainees, trainers, vocational-school teachers and business representatives, the film presents the diversity of German vocational training. “A particular challenge is to present the structures and connections within German vocational education and its advantages in an internationally comprehensible form so that they can support international partners’ own approaches to solutions,” Storm says.
Manfred Kremer, President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, emphasizes the film’s international usefulness: “German cooperation in vocational education takes place in more than 60 countries together with the politically responsible local organizations. German vocational training stands for quality and innovation, which we can present to a wide audience with this documentary.”
The film is aimed at representatives of foreign governments and vocational-training institutions, scientific bodies, and international and supranational organizations—in short, everyone abroad interested in German vocational training. It will therefore also be available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese. It can be downloaded free from the BIBB website beginning in June 2008.
The film supports the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s activities to improve the marketing of German vocational training. These include the iMOVE unit, which aims to improve the international positioning of German education providers, and the “edvance” initiative by BIBB and the organizations InWEnt and GTZ to increase the visibility of German vocational-training organizations abroad.
