Many school leavers with a higher education entrance qualification in Germany are uncertain about their choice, start university studies and later drop out. At the same time, there is a growing number of trainees who have a school-leaving certificate with a higher education entrance qualification, bringing their own unique demands to vocational education and training (VET) curricula. Some programmes of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and the project Study-integrated training (SiA-NRW) are now bringing academic study content into the curricula of dual training programmes.
During training, learners get to know both training paths and then decide on one of the two degrees or even complete both. As a hybrid training programme, both models link the three learning locations of vocational school, company and university. While students in a dual study programme that integrates training commit to the double degree before they start their studies, the trainees in these programmes get a taste of both the training and the study programme before they decide.
The first students started at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in autumn 2021. There are five courses to choose from, including three commercial apprenticeships interlinked with business studies (industrial clerks, bank clerks and marketing communication clerks).
The SiA-NRW was launched at three locations in the 2021/22 training year. In the meantime, the study-integrated training has expanded to 11 locations in commercial and industrial-technical training occupations. The SiA-NRW project is part of the nationwide InnoVet project, an innovation competition for excellent VET, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a budget of EUR 5.4 million.
Participants start with dual vocational training (apprenticeship) and a bachelor degree programme in parallel. For up to 18 months, they go through essential parts of dual training at the learning locations of vocational school and company. They are also taught subject-related study content at a university. After the basic stage, the trainees decide, based on their experience, either to complete the dual vocational training, switch completely to the university and finish with a degree (bachelor) or complete a double degree within 4 years.
| Please cite this news item as: ReferNet Germany; Cedefop (2022). New study-integrated training programmes in Germany. National news on VET |
This news item was also published on Skillset and match – May 2022 issue 25