The Federal Institute for VET (BIBB), Germany’s centre of excellence for vocational research and for the progressive development of VET, conducts many research projects. Information on these projects is accessible through their BIBB project database as well as in the Annual research programme of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training which is already available for 2018.

The main thematic areas of BIBB research and development projects for 2018 are:

  1. the training market and employment system;
  2. VET modernisation and quality assurance;
  3. internationalisation of VET;
  4. organisational development: academic research communication.

Under these themes the following four new BIBB research projects have started in 2018:

  1. Opportunities and risks of technological change for occupational participation of disabled persons
    The main objective of the project is to examine the extent to which technological change improves or reduces the labour market participation of disabled persons and to analyse task structures and the influence of computerisation on tasks differentiated by type of disability. This project on inclusion is managed by Dr Sabrina Inez Weller, who can be contacted at: weller@bibb.de  
  1. Planning and structuring training within the context of work-based learning
    The aim of this research project is to investigate how companies deal with training regulations, how they evaluate such regulations as an instrument of governance, and how they integrate general training plans into their training. This project is managed by Daniel Schreiber, who can be contacted at: schreiber@bibb.de  
  1. Occupational tasks and requirements in international comparative terms: analyses of national and international datasets
    This project aims to map and investigate this hypothesis of heterogeneity of occupational requirements, usually measured as specialist and non-specialist requirements in the same occupations between different countries. The main emphases will be on analysis of training programmes and qualifications and on the interplay between the biographical characteristics of employees and company factors. This project is managed by Dr Philipp Grollmann, who can be contacted at: grollmann@bibb.de 
  1. Open access in vocational education and training research
    This research project investigates the technical and structural regulations, policy standards and conditions inherent within the academic research system, which influence acceptance, dissemination and use of Open Access (OA, free access to academic research information) from the point of view of authors working within vocational education and training research. This project is managed by Dr Bodo Rödel who can be contacted at: roedel@bibb.de