Skilled Crafts presenting their international VET support activity

As part of the SCIVET project the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts held a conference on 21 September 2018 in order to present to the international VET community the range of VET support that sector members are delivering to partners outside Germany. On the occasion of this conference, SCIVET presented newly developed tools that are now available to support Skilled Crafts’ experts in their international support work.

Dirk Palige, CEO of the German Confederation of Chambers of Skilled Crafts, explained why the skilled crafts sector engages in international VET cooperation: “The dual character of vocational education and training (VET) is key to the success of German VET. This means practical training taking place in companies complemented by theoretical classes at vocational schools. To us the success of the system is determined by how employable apprenticed trainees are. And that degree of employability is very high in Germany. That is why the German VET system serves as a role model to many countries that are facing problems with the output of their own VET system. […] We see that the importance of vocational education and training to the bilateral relations of our Federal Government is increasing. And as a sector with a traditionally high degree of responsibility for VET in Germany Skilled Crafts are happy to take a similar responsibility for VET within Federal Governments’ bilateral relations. For it is very important to us that Germany has good relations with other countries. And we do want to contribute to securing conditions in those countries that allow everyone there to live in peace and with a prospect of economic and social participation.”

Herr Dirk Palige, ZDH, erläutert, warum das Handwerk sich in der internationalen Berufsbildungszusammenarbeit engagiert

Two reports from international VET projects (GRÆDUCATION project in Greece by HWK Münster and VET partnership with Rwanda by HWK Koblenz) served as case studies for describing typical challenges that German Skilled Crafts experts have to overcome when committing to such projects. The topic of challenges and how to overcome them was then picked up by the panellists of the subsequent discussion: Dr Henk van Liempt (BMBF), Dr Evelina Parvanova (HWK Koblenz), Bernd Mahrin (TU Berlin) und Sebastian Knobloch (ZWH). From their individual perspectives of politically steering VET support, implementing it and evaluating it, they discussed how transferring elements of the dual VET system to other countries is done best. All panellists underlined the added value that the SCIVET projects results do bring to such transfer processes:

The German skilled craft sector’s systemic quality standards for international VET cooperation help develop a common understanding of what makes a VET system a dual one.
The SCIVET strategy kit and the portfolio of services make it easier to link dialogue at a political level to determining the content of specific support projects.
The Portfolio of Services provides transparency about the VET support services that the skilled crafts sector can deliver internationally.
When providing VET support services internationally the SCIVET strategy kit helps ensure that newly created VET structures are joined up with those already existing in the relevant country.
The SCIVET Co-ordination unit can help find a project partner from the skilled crafts sector who can internationally offer those VET support services that are needed.

The SCIVET Strategy is available to members of the skilled crafts organisation only.

More information on the skilled crafts sectors’ international VET activity can be found here.

Presentations given at the conference can be downloaded below.