- 2016Implementation
- 2017Implementation
- 2018Implementation
- 2019Implementation
- 2020Implementation
- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
Background
Women and men continue to align themselves very differently on the training and labour market in Germany. In company-based training, women and men are unequally distributed across the individual training areas. Significant differences between the subjects chosen by young females and males are also revealed at vocational schools and at institutes of higher education. Young people are likely to align their occupational choice decisions to traditional patterns. This means that the career spectrum available to them becomes limited. This causes repercussions at individual, economic and societal levels.
Objectives
The aim of the measure is to inform and network all those involved in career orientation processes to enable young people to choose a career and course of study based on their individual strengths and interests, free from gender stereotypes.
Description
Since December 2016, a dedicated website informs and supports young people in their career choice free from gender clichés; it also serves all actors involved in career guidance processes (schools, parents, companies). Support tools include fact sheets, best practice examples, guidance, working materials, event announcements and news, further links and contacts.
Responsible stakeholders for this initiative on the Federal and Federal State levels are the Ministries of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Employment Agency. Other partners who are involved in this initiative are companies, trade unions like the Chambers of Skilled Crafts, professional associations, early education institutions, schools, universities, education institutions, scientific institutes and other institutions. The Competence Centre Technology-Diversity-Equal Opportunities e. V. (kompetenzz) and the Federal Institute for VET (BIBB) coordinate the initiative through a service centre. It is funded by both the ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
By end of 2019, more than 230 partners had joined the initiative, so the support network had almost doubled since 2018. The information and support tools had been expanded.
In March 2020, the initiative published a four-page position paper on a choice of career and study path free from gender stereotypes.
The service agency of the Klischeefrei initiative will be organising a series of online seminars on the topics of the Klischeefrei initiative from autumn 2020. Diverse target groups are addressed.
By March 2021, 318 partners had declared their willingness to take appropriate action in their respective areas of responsibility with the Klischeefrei agreement, so the support network had increased by almost 50%.
The third conference of the Klischeefrei initiative was scheduled to take place on 9 March 2021 as an online conference open to all, under the motto Bye-bye clichés, hello talents.
In 2021, further activities and publications were initiated both on a national and regional level, such as the project: Course for the crafts: getting (more) girls enthusiastic about crafts, which aims to break down prejudices amongst young women and win them over to crafts professions. The project is being carried out as a model project in some Chamber of Skilled Crafts districts in Bavaria and in the Women in the skilled crafts initiative of the Stuttgart Chamber of Skilled Crafts.
In February 2022, the initiative welcomed its 400th partner organisation. During the year, other partners joined the initiative such as the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, Freedom of Information and the German Aerospace Industries Association and the German Football Association (DFB) joined the initiative.
The impact studies on both the Girls' Day as well as the Boys' Day initiative by kompetenzz from 2022 confirms positive results. Furthermore, the Girls' Day initiative won the Rudolf Diesel Medal in the category 'Best Innovation Promotion'.
Around 120 000 learners took part in the nationwide Girls' Day and Boys' Day in April 2022.
Further activities and publications were also initiated and continued in 2022, both at national and regional level:
- publication of a cliché-free fact sheet on the subject of nursing professions;
- a series of Boys' Day video, where boys and men talk about their everyday working lives in professions where women still predominate, a multilingual touring exhibition of the initiative Komm, mach MINT (Come make STEM) provides information about the opportunities and contents of higher education and VET in the STEM fields;
- new edition of 'MINT & SOCIAL for you' 2022 presents training opportunities for young people - free of role clichés;
- publishing of a cliché-free topic dossier on digital competences in the world of work;
- an e-learning course especially for professionals in career guidance provides information on the method 'Cliché-free counselling on occupations'. The is provided by Kompetenzzentrum Technik-Diversity-Chancengleichheit e. V., which is home to the service point of the Initiative Klischeefrei;
- practical online lecture were offered by the service point of the Initiative Klischeefrei on cliché-free career and study choices, which included interesting information on the relationship between gender and career choice as well as on application-related methods for stereotype-free counselling of career and study choices;
- Initiative Klischeefrei was presented with a stand at the big education fair didacta 2022 in Cologne.
As of February 2023, 475 partner organisations had joined the Cliché Free initiative. The initiative continued to organise numerous events, to develop new tools and publications, to promote networking and to disseminate cliché free career choice, starting with early education until working life. The method sets 'Cliché-free career guidance' and 'Cliché-free through primary school' published in 2022 are used intensively by specialists.
Since Girls'Day's launch in 2001, over 2.2 million girls have taken part in more than 172 000 programmes. Girls'Day achieved new record figures in 2023, with 13 795 activities and 126 245 places for girls. Further, since Boys'Day's launch in 2011, more than 375 000 boys have taken part in more than 62 000 activities. In 2023, 7 849 girls and 1 696 boys took part in the Girls'Day and Boys'Day survey on career and life planning in 2023. The enthusiasm of young people for Girls'Day and Boys'Day continues to be enormous: 95% of participating girls and 94% of participating boys found the 2023 campaign days very good or good.
It is particularly interesting to note that the participants primarily learnt about professions through one-day internships, longer internships and discussions with people who work in the respective occupational fields. Parents also continue to play an important role as a source of information in career guidance. However, the majority of young people would also like vocational orientation to become an integral part of lessons, which emphasises the importance of school as preparation for future working life. Despite the gender stereotypes that still exist in career and study choices, the survey shows that the majority of young people favour an equal division of responsibilities for housework and care work in a partnership. Spending time with the children, for example, is seen as a shared task by both the boys and girls surveyed.
Once a year, Girls'Day and Boys'Day offer girls and boys an insight into professions in which women or men are underrepresented. With more than 23 000 programmes nationwide and a total of more than 175 000 places for pupils, Girls'Day and Boys'Day set a new record on 25 April 2024 under the motto 'Here you come! Cliché-free career and study choices for all'.
As of October 2024, more than 650 partner organisations have joined the Cliché Free initiative (the number more than doubled since 2021). The initiative continues to organise numerous events, to develop new tools and publications, to promote networking and to disseminate cliché free career choice, starting with early education until working life, e.g. the new method set 'Cliché-free in the company' developed in 2023 was published in 2024.
Bodies responsible
- Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ)
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
- Competence Centre Technology-Diversity-Equal Opportunities e. V. (kompetenzz)
- Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)
- Chambers of Skilled Crafts
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Young people (15-29 years old)
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.
In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.
Modernising VET offer and delivery
This thematic category looks at what and how individuals learn, how learning content and learning outcomes in initial and continuing VET are defined, adapted and updated. First and foremost, it examines how VET standards, curricula, programmes and training courses are updated and modernised or new ones created. Updated and renewed VET content ensures that learners acquire a balanced mix of competences that address modern demands, and are more closely aligned with the realities of the labour market, including key competences, digital competences and skills for green transition and sustainability, both sector-specific and across sectors. Using learning outcomes as a basis is important to facilitate this modernisation, including modularisation of VET programmes. Updating and developing teaching and learning materials to support the above is also part of the category.
The thematic category continues to focus on strengthening high-quality and inclusive apprenticeships and work-based learning in real-life work environments and in line with the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships. It looks at expanding apprenticeship to continuing vocational training and at developing VET programmes at EQF levels 5-8 for better permeability and lifelong learning and to support the need for higher vocational skills.
This thematic category also focuses on VET delivery through a mix of open, digital and participative learning environments, including workplaces conducive to learning, which are flexible, more adaptable to the ways individuals learn, and provide more access and outreach to various groups of learners, diversifying modes of learning and exploiting the potential of digital learning solutions and blended learning to complement face-to-face learning.
Centres of vocational excellence that connect VET to innovation and skill ecosystems and facilitate stronger cooperation with business and research also fall into this category.
This thematic sub-category covers all developments related to work-based learning (WBL) elements in VET programmes and apprenticeships which continue to be important in the policy agenda. It includes measures to stabilise the offer of apprenticeships, the implementation of the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships, and using the EU on-demand support services and policy learning initiatives among the Member States. It also covers further expansion of apprenticeships and WBL to continuing VET (CVET), for transition to work and inclusion of vulnerable groups, and for improving citizens’ qualification levels.
Supporting lifelong learning culture and increasing participation
Lifelong learning refers to all learning (formal, non-formal or informal) taking place at all stages in life and resulting in an improvement or update in knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes or in participation in society from a personal, civic, cultural, social or employment-related perspective (Erasmus+, Glossary of terms, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-d/glossary-common-terms). A systemic approach to CVET is crucial to ensure adaptability to evolving demands.
This broad thematic category looks at ways of creating opportunities and ensuring access to re-skilling and upskilling pathways, allowing individuals to progress smoothly in their learning throughout their lives with better permeability between general and vocational education and training, and better integration and compatibility between initial and continuing VET and with higher education. Individuals should be supported in acquiring and updating their skills and competences and navigating easily through education and training systems. Strategies and campaigns that promote VET and LLL as an attractive and high-quality pathway, providing quality lifelong guidance and tailored support to design learning and career paths, and various incentives (financial and non-financial) to attract and support participation in VET and LLL fall into this thematic category as well.
This thematic category also includes many initiatives on making VET inclusive and ensuring equal education and training opportunities for various groups of learners, regardless of their personal and economic background and place of residence – especially those at risk of disadvantage or exclusion, such as persons with disabilities, the low-skilled and low-qualified, minorities, migrants, refugees and others.
This thematic sub-category refers to initiatives that promote VET and lifelong learning implemented at any level and by any stakeholder. It also covers measures to ensure and broaden access to information about VET to various target groups, including targeted information and promotional campaigns (e.g. for parents, adult learners, vulnerable groups). Among others, it includes national skill competitions and fairs organised to attract learners to VET.
This thematic sub-category refers to providing high-quality lifelong learning and career guidance services, including making full use of Europass and other digital services and resources.
This thematic sub-category refers to making VET pathways and programmes inclusive and accessible for all. It concerns measures and targeted actions to increase access and participation in VET and lifelong learning for learners from all vulnerable groups, and to support their school/training-to-work transitions. It includes measures to prevent early leaving from education and training. The thematic sub-category covers measures promoting gender balance in traditionally ‘male’ and ‘female’ professions and addressing gender-related and other stereotypes. The vulnerable groups are, but not limited to: persons with disabilities; the low-qualified/-skilled; minorities; persons of migrant background, including refugees; people with fewer opportunities due to their geographical location and/or their socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances.
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Providing gender cliché-free vocational guidance: Germany. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28129