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Aims and Objectives of German Vocational

and Professional Education in the Present
European Context
Reimut Jochimsen
Published online: 06 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Reimut Jochimsen (1978) Aims and Objectives of German Vocational and Professional
Education in the Present European Context, Comparative Education, 14:3, 199-209

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 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978 199

Aims and Objectives of German

Vocational and
Professional Education in the
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Present European Context

REIMUT JOCHIMSEN[1]

It is always tempting for a professor—and a German one to boot—to set out on the philosophical
high seas in a semantic vessel, discussing the various possibilities of translating 'education' into
German: Bildung, Erziehung, or the relationship between Bildung and Ausbildung. You may even
get into a philosophical conflict of Weltanschauungen over the issue whether vocational education
is Berufsbildung or Berufsausbildung.
In fact, this seemingly philological hairsplitting may have considerable political weight and
significance. Words are not just tags but a way of seeing and interpreting the world. At present in
Germany there is a strong political drive under the banner of Mut zur Erziehung ('have the courage
to educate'), the significance of which can only be understood against the background of the
Erziehung versus Bildung issue. If I am not quite mistaken, a similar battle is being waged in
Britain, though along somewhat different lines and under different banners.
Another issue, of greater political importance, is the issue of Allgemeinbildung (general
education) versus berufliche Bildung (Vocational education—or should I say Vocational
training'?) Even in translation I think the issue comes through. It is not only a question of prestige
and acknowledgement in the vague terms of respect due to a skilled craftsman or a liberal arts
graduate; it is a question of giving educational credit for achievements in vocational education, of
allowing access from vocational education to advanced and higher education comparable to the
chances opened up by the traditional 'general education' Advanced-Level certificates of
'grammar school' type.
To make matters worse, or at least even more complicated, the concept of A llgemeinbildung has
recently become weaker of itself, (and in its very stronghold, the Gymnasium) by allowing the
final grades of that academically oriented upper secondary 'grammar school' to concentrate on a
limited number of subjects according to individual choice of the student. The conditions are such
that specialisation cannot be carried as far as in the English Advanced-Level examination with
two or three subjects; but still it seems a fall from grace to some, since their ideal remains the
Abiturient who until his final year has carried at least two foreign languages, mathematics and two
or three natural sciences, together with German, History and Religion, Music and one or two other
subjects. But even though this concept has been given up, the idea is very slow to take hold that
what a foreign language correspondent or a laboratory assistant or a TV-mechanic has learnt and
demonstrated in ability might be just as valid for further educational careers.
 200 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978

As you see, one may very easily glide from semantics into politics. These few introductory
remarks suffice to indicate how strongly such seemingly pragmatic, economy-oriented issues as
vocational education are embedded in the pattern of cultural values and traditions.
Indeed, such a relationship between the general cultural and social climate of thinking on the
one hand, and the aims and objectives of vocational and professional education policy on the
other, was the reason why I thought it interesting to discuss the German outlook, as expressed in
the words of my title: 'In the present European context'. I mean that the 'European context' is to be
understood more loosely than the European Community of the Brussels Nine. It should certainly
include other highly developed states such as Switzerland and Austria, Norway and Sweden.
Beyond the close economic, political and cultural links and interdependences between these
Western and Northern European countries, one may outline a number of common denominators
that are relevant for the present situation of educational policy and for the way in which these
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issues, in vocational education in particular, are viewed by policy makers and their peoples.
Such denominators, leaving aside a host of necessary qualifications, would be:
(a) the dependence of economic systems on qualification and skills rather than natural
resources;
(b) a slackening of economic growth, accompanied by employment problems and the special
problem of youth unemployment;
(c) more or less formalised educational and training requirements for acknowledged
vocational and professional careers;
(d) a firm commitment towards opening access to, and success in, all stages of the educational
system independently of the individual's social and economic status;
(e) an equally firm commitment to the principle that education is to serve the development of
the individual, as a human being and a member of society, in which preparation for a
useful and self-fulfilling function in the world of work is only one aspect (others of equal
importance for the individual as well as society being the citizen who needs to understand
complex issues to use his franchise, the member and rearer of a family, the participant in
cultural life and contributor to it);
(f) an equally form commitment to the principle that, in education as in the economy and in
production, policy and planning must not curb, but serve individual freedom and choice
in decision-making; and
(g) finally—to return to the present situation—a slackening of educational expansion, partly
due to a lack of public finance, but probably due to a larger extent to the fact that, for the
first time since the mid-century, the supply of qualifications produced by the education
and training systems exceeds the demand by industry and the economy—at least
temporarily and in specific fields.
This last point is of special importance in systems like the German, as distinct from the English
system and others, since in my country there is a complicated, elaborate and highly differentiated
(but also very rigid) linkage between formal qualifications obtained in education on the one hand,
and admission to vocational or professional positions and careers on the other. The key words here
are Berechtigung (certification and entitlement) and Laufbahn (career entry and promotion
regulations). I shall come back to that aspect. For the moment, it may suffice to point out what that
close linkage means in some fields where the formal qualifications obtained exceed the demands
of the labour market, at least by traditional standards. It means, from the individual's point of
view, that formal educational qualifications are less certain to pay off in terms of secure
employment and income advantage.
Most of the above remarks are no doubt generalisations, and to some extent truisms. They
would, furthermore, also apply in a large measure to the USA or to such other non-European
states as Japan, Canada or Australia. This may be the reason why the social and economic policy
analysis of these issues is more advanced in the OECD rather than in Brussels, where 'education'
 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978 201

was incorporated into the field of cooperation only a few years ago. It is also in OECD that what I
would like to call the 'European' outlook is beginning to take shape in the approach to the
consequences, of educational policy, particularly for vocational education [2].
Let me try to explain what I mean by that. It is, roughly speaking, the philosophy that social and
political responsibility towards youth goes beyond the provision—and indeed beyond the
enforcement through compulsory school legislation—of a sound basic education. It includes what
in nice 'internationalese' is called 'insertion in the world of work'. In those general terms this
commitment would be shared by others, but at this point we confront the formalised structures of
educational requirements for vocational careers to which I referred above, and which are typical
of the Continental European states.
In the German national context this means, for instance, that State and industry—employers as
well as unions—consider it a social responsibility that every boy or girl should obtain an
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acknowledged vocational or professional qualification, either through post-compulsory full-time

schooling or (and this still goes for about 50% of our youth) through a 3-year apprenticeship.
Everybody knows and talks about the fact that we have doubled the participation rate in higher
education within about a decade—though often with a critical undertone nowadays. This is, no
doubt, a great achievement. It has created problems; but without that expansion our problems
would be much more serious economically and socially. However, there is another statistic which I
think is at least as significant, and which hardly anybody talks about. While university entrance
went up from 10 to 20% of the age group, the number of those who went directly on the labour
market as unskilled labour after compulsory general education decreased by a comparable rate.
Thus, in spite of an increasing intake into post-compulsory school and higher education, the
number of persons in apprenticeship remained roughly constant: around 50% of the age group.
Over the same 10 years, the annual number of graduates coming out of higher education increased
from roughly 65 000 to 112 000. At the same time, the number of successful apprenticeship
completions went up by far more than 50 000; and last year it approached the 500 000 mark. By
persuasion, legislation and financial support, our policy has been to urge private employers to take
on more apprentices; so that everyone who does not continue in full-time schooling—vocational
and technical or general—has the chance to get a complete training in an acknowledged craft or
trade. Of course this does not solve the employment problem, because it implies training beyond
future employment capacity in specific trades. But we feel, and statistics confirm it, that those risks
are smaller and more bearable for the trained individual than is the situation of the unskilled
labourer aged 16 or 17. This feeling corresponds, I think, to a deeply engrained attitude in our
population. If you talk to the legendary man in the street—or a housewife in the market or a
labourer in the put)—he or she may tell you that a son has just left school after nine years. The
traditional German response to that information is the question '. . . and what is he learning
now?'—meaning 'in which craft is he apprenticed?'. The parent may proudly answer that he is not
'learning' but going to a school of commerce. But if the answer is that he 'is not learning, but went
to work directly', that answer will probably be rather apologetic, perhaps with a hint of his
'making very good money' as an excuse. In the USA, or other overseas countries, I think one
would be much more likely to find parental pride in the boy's 'going out to fend for himself, in the
good old pioneer tradition.
In official terminology, the same attitude is expressed in the principle of'qualification policy':
that no one should leave the initial phase of education—quite apart from adult education
facilities—without an acknowledged vocational or professional qualification. In fact, this is not so
much a new principle as a new awareness of an old one, which has led to new policy priorities and
their consequences. It may surprise some people—indeed it surprises some Germans—to realise
that we have, and have had for a long time, compulsory education up to the age of 18; but the last
three years of that referred to part-time education only, that is the day-release vocational school.
In practice, it has applied only to some 11% (1965) or 6% (1975) of the age group who neither went
on through full-time upper secondary schools nor took up an apprenticeship. As apprentices, part
 202 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978

of their training comprises eight to 12 school lessons per week, including a few of a 'general
education' nature. However, even that roughly 6% who have left the nine-year compulsory school,
frequently without successful completion, and who are doing unskilled work or are unemployed,
have to go to that part-time school. The educational effect may be doubtful, but the principle I find
significant. Against this background, then, let me try to sketch some present issues, aims and
objectives of our vocational and professional education policy.
I have already referred to the great expansion in education of which that in a Gymnasium
(grades 5 to 13 'grammar school' type secondary school leading to the A bitur, giving an automatic
university entrance qualification) is only a part. That expansion was encouraged by policy
measures, organisational as well as financial; but the basic energy came from a tremendous
increase in public demand for more and longer education. Those social groups that had created
economic prosperity, for themselves and for society as a whole, claimed their share in these
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chances for social promotion which in our system are so closely linked to educational certificates.
Although badly needed structural reforms were only partly achieved, and although expansion
only slowly and in disappointingly small degrees brought with it a narrowing of the gap between
the participation rates of different social groups, still it means a lasting change in the social
structure of our population. That change will become fully evident only as fresh age groups with
new and higher qualifications replace year by year another age group whose qualifications were
determined by the participation rates of the 1950s and earlier.
I do not intend to belabour you with statistical sequences about rates of increase or financial
outlay, since these are easily available [3]. However, I do want to give a few data, on the long-range
perspective regarding the effects of expansion on the qualification structure of the total labour
force. In 1961,2-9% of the labour force (at work or registered unemployed) were higher education
graduates. By 1970, this had gone up to 3-8% for the traditional higher education institutions, and
up to 6% if one includes the newly established short-cycle Fachhochschulen that developed from
the former sub-academic Ingenieurschulen and similar institutions in business administration and
social work. By 1990, the 'graduate quota' will have gone up to 11 %. And, perhaps most important:
by 1990, another 69% of the active population will have an acknowledged vocational qualification.
Most of these will be gained through an apprenticeship in a craft or trade, in industry or
commerce; the others in advanced vocational and technical schools. This means, then, that in 1990
the proportion of those without a completed vocational or professional qualification (by 1970
reduced to 37%) will go down further to 20%. What this means within one generation may be
illustrated by the following: of the age group over 65 in 1976, 28% had a full vocational
qualification from apprenticeship: of the group aged between 20 and 25 years, 54% had such a
qualification.
Since educational expansion was by no means a uniquely German phenomenon—in fact, we
were latecomers in the field—similar perspectives may probably be drawn up for other countries.
But international comparisons have for a long time focussed too much on full-time school
education and higher education, leaving out the apprenticeship system which is particularly
important in some countries such as Germany. This has its immediate impact on one of the key
problems in many countries today, youth unemployment. OECD has drawn up a table on the
development of employment rates for the 15-19-year age group. It says that, in the United
Kingdom in 1960, there were 74% of that age group in employment; by 1975, this had gone down
to 45-5%—mainly due to increased participation in post-compulsory school education. For
Germany, the figures are almost the same: 76% in 1960, 45% in 1975. However, if your take the
apprentices out of the employment figures, the quota for Germany goes down to 45% in 1960, and
to 15% in 1975; and this would give Germany a rather unique position.
This situation may also serve to explain why youth unemployment—even if one sets the limit at
25 rather than 20—is relatively low in Germany. I emphasise the word 'relatively', because it does
exist and it does present a serious challenge. More than half of unemployed youth come from that
small group who went directly from school to unskilled work, and it is for them in particular that
 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978 203

we urge and promote the development of a tenth year of full-time education, especially in the form
of a Berufsgrundschuljahr, a year of vocational orientation and basic training.
The socio-economic context within which educational expansion took place led to particular
emphasis being laid simultaneously on two policy objectives—namely, satisfying the demand for
qualified manpower, and achieving greater equality of educational opportunity. The great
advantage was, of course, that expansion satisfied both motives: the aspirations of individuals and
the need of the economy. Pressure from many sections of the population and a general belief in the
benefits to be derived from educational investment led to an increasing allocation of resources to
education, to an expansion of existing capacities, to the recruitment of additional staff and the
instigation of reforms. At the beginning of the 1970s the general upward economic trend began to
slow down in the Federal Republic, as in other countries. Yet the number of students in higher
education continues to increase: at the beginning of the academic year 1977/78 there were about
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910 000 students at German institutions of higher education; in 1960 the number was 291 000.
Numerically, most of the ambitions and predictions of the early 1960s—when the alarm bell of
Bildungskatastrophe (educational catastrophe) was rung because of the shortage of highly
qualified manpower and the reluctance of the system to adapt itself to new social and economic
demands—numerically, I repeat, most of the ambitions and predictions were surpassed. With
regard to social equality and pedagogical reform of structure and content, the story is somewhat
different. In view of today's economic situation, reduced career certainties and reduced public
finances, it has indeed become a masochistic pleasure among erstwhile reformers to denounce
expansion because it has not brought the degree of social equity that had been hoped for.
It is obvious, I think, that a tripartite secondary school with the basic selection made at the age of
10 will favour social background as against individual ability. That system's rigidity has been
weakened by various measures of flexibility, later transfer and alternative routes. But the more
radical counter-model, that of the comprehensive school, is of real numerical importance only in
two states, Hesse and Berlin, with a smaller number of experimental schools in all others. Still,
awareness of deficiencies and shortcomings need not blind one to what has been achieved. I have
pointed to the general rise in educational qualifications, of which higher education represents just
one layer. I may add one more example: while the number of students in higher education doubled
from 1966 to 1975, the proportion of workers' children in the total student body also doubled. If
one looks at first-year students, the chances that a worker's child born in 1958 will enter higher
education is about six times as high as the chance of someone born in 1948 was 10 years ago.
The 'expansion bulge' is still moving upwards within higher education, though new entry
figures have remained constant since 1973 and have even dropped slightly in 1977. The increasing
numbers of graduates come upon an employment market that is drastically different from that
existing when most of them decided to aim for university by entering the Gymnasium at the age
of 10. Their chances are, of course, still better than of those possessing lower qualifications, but
they are not as good as they used to be—and, more important perhaps, not as secure and certain.
Public service, which used to employ more than half of the graduates and pays them rather well by
now, is filled and reluctant to expand further. The teaching profession—the main employment
sector of the public service, for which about 40% of the students prepared themselves—is facing a
drastic decline in the age groups now moving from primary into secondary education.
On the other hand, education and labour market policy are faced with quite a different
immediate demographic problem: the drastic decline in the birth rate since the late 1960s was
preceded by a 'baby boom'. By the mid-1960s, the annual number of births had exceeded the
1 million mark. By last year, it was down to about 600 000, of whom 100 000 were the children of
foreign labourers. Some urban primary schools are facing the problem of German children being
in the minority, and the foreign majority consisting of half a dozen nationalities. It is easy to see the
wide range of problems implied by that development, which has meant, for instance, an increase
of school population by 20% or 2 million from 1965 to 1975 for demographic reasons alone, with
another 1 million more due to the extension of compulsory schooling and higher retention rates. It
 204 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978

means also that the number of people in the 15 to 20 age group went up by 15% from 1970 to 1975,
will increase again by 12% by 1980 and will go down 40% from there by 1990. The key problem for
educational planning today, therefore, is to secure, at all levels of vocational and general post-
compulsory education, adequate facilities to meet the demands of the 'large age-groups' which are
now moving into post-compulsory education, will not reach their peak within the higher
education age until 1985, and will then drop by as much as 40% within a few years.
Within the next 10 years, we shall have to provide about 1-7 million more young people than
today with post-compulsory education. To secure the full range of opportunities for all of these
adolescents is, therefore, the key priority for education policy. That task is not exactly made easier
by the principle of offering a full vocational qualification to everyone which I outlined at the
beginning. On the other hand, the fulfilment of that principle is at present more important than at
a time of rapid economic growth on two accounts:
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(a) for the individual, because the least skilled are most in danger of being unemployed,
(b) for society, because we shall need all skills urgently when only small age groups enter the
labour market in the late 1980s.
To achieve this aim in the next few years the important thing will be to round off and complete
the enormous quantitative extension of the education system by giving more thought to its
content. In this task the Federal Government has to rely on constructive cooperation by the
Lander in particular, but also the cooperation of industry and all the other groups in society that
have responsibilities in the fields of education and employment.
The two cornerstones of the educational policy initiated by the Federal Government are the
extension of the vocational training system and the opening-up of institutions of higher education.
The joint programme for action agreed on by the heads of the Federal and Lander Governments
in Bonn on 4 November 1977 [4] embraces the whole range of issues affecting the education and
employment of young people, namely:
(a) the expansion and improvement of vocational training,
(b) the reduction of numerus clausus restrictions,
(c) the provision of financial support for higher education institutions, including grants to
university postgraduates who do additional research and teaching,
(d) the reform of courses of study at institutions of higher learning,
(e) educational counselling and guidance on careers and
(f) the conclusions to be drawn for the labour market.
With regard to higher education, the core of the action programme is to reduce from 40 to 12 the
number of subjects in which enrolment restrictions have been in force at the universities. This
means that more than 85% of all study places will no longer be allocated by the Central Clearing
Office for Admission to Higher Education (ZVS in Dortmund). In this context it must be noted
that numerus clausus disciplines account for a minority of the fields represented in German tertiary
education. Moreover, the problems are expected to diminish towards the late 1980s rather than to
grow. One of the responsibilities of the State and the institutions istoseeka remedy for the period
until then.
Expansion of physical plant is not only costly—especially in the hard-core fields—but may also
result in what taxpayers will call 'mismanagement of investments' if usable facilities are idle a
decade from now. Increases in the numbers of university teachers (desirable though they may
appear in the competitive academic labour market of 1978) are a problem, particularly because of
the civil service status—with life tenure—of university teachers; temporary appointments would
require a basic change in the entire public service legislation.
One intermediate solution has been found in the formula of the so-called temporary 'excess
quota' of enrolments and teaching loads (Uberlastquote), which foresees the compensation for an
 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978 205

overload of students by certain financial and personnel rearrangements which are also intended to
secure the standards of research.
Apart from the decision to reduce the number of numerus clausus subjects, the agreement with
the Lander contains a package of further measures to be applied both within and outside the
higher education sector, measures that are necessary in order to pursue the policy of opening up
education. They include:
(a) confirmation of the long-term objective of the Planning Committee for the Construction
of Higher Education Institutions to provide 850 000 'physical' study places that will
accommodate approximately 1 million students;
(b) a speeding-up of the reform of courses of study and expansion of educational counselling
and guidance on careers;
(c) objectives for the relationship between the educational system and the labour market,
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including opportunities for employment and the necessary reforms in the Civil Service
within the present demographic context with steeply rising numbers of graduates, while
the retiring age groups are much smaller because of two world wars); and
(d) maintaining a high standard of teaching and of research, particularly by giving grants to
young highly qualified university postgraduates (the so-called Heisenberg programme in
honour of the famous nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate).
Again, higher education is only one layer. A matter of at least equal importance—and, I may
add, a policy task of at least equal difficulty—is to secure an adequate supply of facilities for
vocational and technical qualification in schools and, above all, in training places for apprentices.
Over the years of expansion, the number of apprenticeships completed annually remained more
or less constant. At a closer look this is indeed surprising, because one would assume that the
increased participation rates in upper secondary schooling would mean a drain on the
apprenticeship reservoir.
As has been shown above, however, this was compensated for by a reduction in the number of
those who remained without either schooling or training after compulsory school. Another figure
went down significantly, however; that of apprenticeship places offered. This was partly due to
changes in the structure of industry and crafts, partly perhaps also to the fact that government
regulations for apprenticeship training laid down increased qualitative requirements so as to
make sure that training remained up to standard and was adequate for new technologies. Whereas
traditionally the total demand for apprentices had been much higher than the number of
applicants, the two curves began to come dangerously close, and the number of applicants showed
a clear upward trend.
In that situation, the federal parliament in 1976 passed the Ausbildungsplatzforderungsgesetz,
the law to Secure Adequate Provision of Training Places. This was preceded by a long and heated
debate over the feasibility of a levy-system comparable to that of the former British Industrial
Training Act. The outcome was, so to speak, a compromise. I prefer to call it a 'force in reserve'.
The law says that, if in a given year the number of apprenticeship vacancies does not exceed the
number of applicants by at least 12-5% on the national scale, and over the whole range of about 460
acknowledged vocations, then the government may raise a levy from all larger firms to 0-25% of
their annual wage rate. Firms with an annual wage sum of less than 400 000 DM (i.e.
approximately, with less than 20 employees) are exempt. The money is to be used to create or
stimulate new training places, and to give a premium to those who increase their training efforts.
As will be understood, the employers' associations did not like this law, which they saw as a
Trojan horse of state interference. What matters is the way in which they expressed their
disapproval; by accepting the principle that in training apprentices they were fulfilling a public,
social responsibility towards the young generation, and therefore also by accepting the principle
that the training effort should not be limited to what they estimated to be the future need of a given
craft or trade, but solely according to the demand of the young to have a chance of vocational
 206 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978

qualifications. They therefore pledged every effort to reverse the trend and to increase training
places—perhaps just to show those politicians and bureaucrats how superfluous their law was.
Thus—in spite of difficult economic conditions—during the last few years we have reached a
turning-point which indicates a more positive development than we experienced in times of the
economic boom [5]. In 1977, 585 000 places were available, and 560 000 new apprenticeship
contracts were actually concluded, an increase of more than 100 000 over 1975, despite adverse
economic conditions and the continuing shrinkage of our labour force. The efforts and
commitment of enterprises and trade unions, of training personnel and work councils, have made
a decisive contribution to the expansion of training capacity. This is particularly true of the crafts
sector, which showed the greatest rate of increase of all the branches of trade and industry. Still,
the demand for apprenticeships had gone up even more steeply, and at the end of November 1977
there were still about 16 500 young people registered at labour exchanges who had been
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unsuccessful in obtaining a training place. Here you see the point of the '12-5% above demand on
the national scale' condition of the federal law. Actually, of the 585 000 places offered, only
560 000 were filled. Still, 16 500 did not get a place—mainly because the vacancies were in another
part of the country. So you need a global provision if you intend to meet the demand.
In 1978, because of the demographic developments, the number of apprenticeship seekers will
probably rise to 630 000; that is, 70 000 more apprenticeships than last year have to be contracted.
So we need still greater efforts on the part of all concerned before all the young people requesting it
can be offered vocational training.
For the last two years, then, during which the law to Secure Adequate Provision of Training
Places has been in force, the levy could have been raised. In view of the markedly increased effort
of crafts and industry to meet the challenge, however, and the pledge to increase provision further,
the Government has decided in both years not to put the law into effect. You will understand why
I call the law a 'force in reserve'; and I think it is a very successful one.
Of course, the improvement of vocational education is not just a matter of numbers. The
regulations for the non-school part of apprenticeship training are the responsibility of the Federal
Government. A few years ago that responsibility was, significantly, transferred from the Labour
and Economics Departments to the Education Ministry. We are engaged in a constant process of
revising and modernising the training regulations in cooperation with the Trade Unions, as well as
with the Industrial and Trade associations and chambers who are responsible for securing their
being observed, for the quality of training, and for the examinations. One principle of that process
of revision is to reduce the number of acknowledged crafts and trades by counteracting
overspecialisation, and to restructure the training in such a way that specialisation comes
gradually, with a broad base in the first year and a step by step branching out into special fields in
the second and third years.
One way of restructuring training in that way is gradually being introduced by Lander
legislation in cooperation with the Federal Government and industry: the replacement of the first
year of apprenticeship by a school-based Berufsgrundschuljahr. Here the apprentice-to-be gets
systematic instruction in a given field of vocational activity, such as metal, wood, clerical,
construction, commerce and about half a dozen more. Only after that year will he become
indentured, and his time of apprenticeship under contract will be reduced. There has been some
resistance to this on the part of employers and their associations; but we are now in a process of
negotiating the content of that year and the consequences for shop-based training in the remaining
reduced apprenticeship. The prospects for a procedure agreed upon by all are becoming clearer.
One issue in the negotiations is the extent to which the real apprenticeship can be reduced, e.g. by a
full year or half a year only.
A special problem for crafts with traditional small-size firms and limited training facilities is to
meet modern requirements, e.g. for data processing in commercial training, or for new
technologies in small construction enterprises. The Federal Government is therefore supporting
the expansion of inter-firm training facilities, with funds amounting to nearly 1 thousand million
 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978 207

Deutschmarks. It has also appropriated 650 million Deutschmarks for the Lander to increase the
capacity of vocational schools, and provides further millions for pilot projects intended to
promote the development of new training courses as well as better vocational training
opportunities, particularly for girls and groups of young people with special difficulties, such as
the handicapped and the children of immigrant workers.
These few remarks suffice to indicate that our system of vocational education so long a
Cinderella not so much in actual importance as with regard to political recognition—still does not
turn out to be the perfectly beautiful princess Snow White awakened by the kiss of political
attention—if I may mix metaphors as well as fairy-tales. Vocational education is, first of all, in
need of improvement and reform. The revision of training plans, the safeguarding of quality,
restructuring on the basis of a Berufsgrundschuljahr none of these measures is easy, and not all of
them are uncontroversial. Secondly, vocational education is not proof against future problems
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and frustrations for individuals or against social friction; but the unemployment risk is smaller,
and adaptability to future demands is greater with a vocational qualification than without. Yet a
return to full employment is the key issue; and that must be achieved by concerted action over a
range of policies, to which educational policy can, at best, contribute.
We must be aware, for instance, that even if we are successful in our policy to provide everyone
with a fully acknowledged qualification, we may well overproduce with regard to some crafts and
be deficient in others. Where deficits and surpluses are foreseeable, we try to rectify the imbalance.
We are definitely not embarking on a system of manpower planning for which education has to
provide coins to be put in predetermined slots. But, basically, we are convinced that a carpenter
journeyman is better off on the labour market, even of there is a surplus of carpenters, than if he
were unskilled. We are also convinced—and here our outlook may be different from that in other
countries—that it is better to make every effort to get a boy or girl of 16 into a regular training for
an acknowledged vocation than to set up a range of short-term training courses for specific jobs or
j ust 'to give them something useful to do and to keep them out of unemployment, or out of the drug
and juvenile delinquency scene'. We do have quite a range of special courses, too, in particular for
school leavers who do not complete the final grades or for other disadvantaged youngsters who
find increasing difficulty in getting a training place or a job even if they want to. These courses are,
in principle, geared towards improving their motivation and their qualification for getting a
regular training place. Our aim is the strengthening of durable stuctural effects, through solid
investment in human resources and in personal development, rather than short-lived stop-gap
measures—which, incidentally, may cost just as much.
There is one other consideration here which I can only touch upon. We know from experience
that the initial level reached in education to a large extent determines on a person's will and ability
to make use of further and adult education opportunities. He who has not acquired the taste
during the first phase is unlikely to develop an appetite later.
This brings me back to the long-range perspectives and the general context of the demographic
and labour market situation. Again some key figures: from 1960 to 1975, the number of German
nationals in the labour force—employed or seeking employment—decreased by 2 million, i.e.
about 7%. That was party due to demographic development, but to a large extent also due to
increased retention rates of the educational system. This shortfall was then offset by the influx of
foreign labour; but today we have about 1 million unemployed. In the next 10 years, at present
retention rates, the potential national labour force will, for demographic reasons, increase by
about 1-1 million. If we do not make the effort I referred to, namely to expand post-compulsory
education facilities at all levels from apprenticeship and full-time vocational school to university,
employment problems will become so much more painful. In the later 1980s, the situation will be
reversed; larger age groups go into retirement, small age groups will enter the labour force.
Education policy cannot and must not be geared to such relatively short-term developments, but
must take them into account, not least in the interest of the individual pupil and student himself. It
can fulfil a legitimate buffer function, and it has its part to play in making sure that an economic
 208 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978

and labour market policy aiming at full employment can rely on getting the manpower and
qualification stock it needs.
Of course this raises the prime question: what qualifications a highly industrialised society will
need around the year 2000. As an educationist, I may be allowed to look at it from the other side.
What are the qualifications likely to be that the present system is now providing for, and will that
provision be an obstacle to a full employment policy? That question I have answered earlier along
rough lines: the proportion of higher education graduates in the total labour force will probably go
up from 6% in 1970 to about 11% in 1990. The proportion of unskilled and semi-skilled workers
will decrease from about 37% to about 20%.
The large layer between—the skilled worker, the employee or craftsman with a fully
acknowledged vocational qualification—will go up from 57% to 69%, i.e. in absolute numbers
more than the quota of graduates.
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I think one can safely say that such a reshaping and lifting of the 'qualification pyramid' is more
likely to support than to be an obstacle to a full employment policy in a society that depends on
highly developed technologies and skills. I further wish to point out the implications for the
structure of economy and industry, far beyond questions of productivity. I recently saw a study
undertaken for the Commission of the European Community in Brussels which shows a close link
between the system of qualification and training on the one hand, and the organisational structure
of the labour force and the production process itself on the other. These relationships are of great
importance for productivity as well as for industrial relations as a whole.
In this study [6], Burkart Lutz of the Institut fur Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung in Munich,
in cooperation with French and German colleagues, compared the qualifications—general as well
as vocational or professional—of personnel in industrial production units in France and in
Germany. They found that in enterprises which were practically identical with regard to branch,
range of products, technical production functions and, consequently, factor proportions, there
were distinct differences with regard to the qualification structure of the personnel, income
distribution and organizational hierarchies. In France, where the work force by and large had had
more years of general education, the hierarchy was shown to be more developed, the specialisation
of work input in production much greater, while both planning and control by non-producing
employees were much more elaborate and segregated. In Germany, by contrast, the production
processes were shown to depend more on the flexible and multiple use of skilled workers
(including functions of management, control and implementation); and this in turn leads to
greater equality in income distribution, notably leading to comparatively higher levels of income
for the lower strata of the labour force.
The researchers found that these differences were largely to be explained by the different
qualifications of the labour force and by differences in the established systems of transition into
employment from general education through vocational education and training. In Germany,
skilled workers with a background of thorough and versatile practical training were available in
great numbers and provided a supply of qualified 'risers' (Aufsteiger) for the middle management
functions of master craftsmen. The corresponding French workers were, in general, better
prepared in terms of the length of their general education, but has less 'on the job' education or
systematic skill training. Consequently, French firms had to rely more strongly on control, which
again was exercised by people of a higher educational standing in terms of general education, but
without a corresponding level of vocational or professional education and training background.
Therefore management had to stress the elements of hierarchy and control in the organisation,
planning and innovation of the production process.
It is, I think, quite probable that such distinctly different features in the respective production
systems tend to reinforce each other, one effect being that in France the role of industry in the
vocational and professional education and training of young people has been increasingly
replaced by a more generally oriented school-type preparation for working life. While that
tendency may well have advantages in allowing for a more systematic approach or avoiding too
 Comparative Education Volume 14 No. 3 October 1978 209

early specialisation or dependence on the facilities offered by local industry, it also means a loss of
the motivation that comes from direct contact with the world of work, of socialisation and
experience, and therefore a loss of the educational values and the attraction for youth that lie in
working and learning in the industrial process itself. The German policy is rather to improve and
secure the quality of vocational training in industry (including the educational qualifications of
the training master-craftsmen), or financial support for off-plant training centres to supplement
the training in certain branches where an individual shop does not offer all that is required by the
training regulations.
Two lessons, it seems to me, can be drawn from this binational comparison: (1) the importance
of real opportunities for moving ahead within the world of work, irrespective of formal
educational qualifications, and (2) the importance of taking the principle of equivalence of
vocational and general education much more seriously and of giving it real meaning for the life
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chances of the individual. (In fact, that is the same point expressed in terms of educational policy.)
Upgrading vocational education, and correcting the bias towards general education or abstract
theory and non-utilitarian objectives in the hierarchy of social values, is an absolutely essential
element in any policy favouring innovation, participation, workers' co-determination, humane
working conditions and social mobility against traditional class structures and barriers.
In this sense I cannot accept the image of a 'pyramidal' qualification structure, which depicts the
demand for a qualified work force in given proportions, be it deduced technocratically from the
structure of the production process or from the 'nature' of the labour market. The demand and
supply of qualifications are, at least in the long run, interrelated phenomena. In this sense, and in
full awareness of all the difficulties it entails, there is a great challenge and a great opportunity in
the sudden increase in qualified people newly entering the labour market, which will change the
shape of the qualification structure from a pyramid to something like a pear or an egg.
This consideration might lead to a whole range of new issues, but they would lead us too far at
this stage. My brief was on educational policy, and I have argued here as an educationist. As it
happens I am, by training and passion, a professor of economics; and, as such, I am of course
tempted to go deeper into these issues. But I shall stick to my brief and stop here. No doubt
questioning would also bring out the economist—no difficult task, I am afraid.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
[1] This article is the unrevised text of a speech delivered by Professor Jochimsen at a conference on 'Education and
Working Life' arranged by the Goethe Institute of London in cooperation with other educational and social research
institutes, held at the Institute of Education, University of London, from 20 to 22 April, 1978.
[2] The general aspects referred to here appear in a number of documents and activities of the Manpower and Social
Affairs Committee, of the Education Committee and of the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation
(CERI). Special reference is made to:
Education Policies and Trends in The Context of Social and Economic Development Perspectives (Paris, 1977);
the documents related to the OECD Conference on Youth Unemployment (December 1977).
OECD Conferences on 'Apprenticeship Training' and on 'Transition from School to Work' will take place in 1978.
[3] Basic statistical data on the German education system and relevant social and financial aspects: annual editions of
Grund- und Strukturdaten, published by der Bundesminister fur Bildung und Wissenschaft (Federal Minister for
Education and Science), Bonn (latest edition, 1977).
The main data in this text referring to long-range perspectives of qualification structure and to 1965-75 comparisons
are taken from the German Federal Government's reply to a 'Große Anfrage' (Major Question) concerning
Educational Policy, submitted by the Majority Representatives in the Federal Parliament: 'Antwort der
Bundesregierung auf die Grofie Anfrage der Fraktionen der SPD und der FDP zur Bildungspolitik' (13.4.1978),
Bundestags-Drucksache 8/1703; to be obtained through Verlag Dr Hans Heger, Postfach 20 08 21, D-5300 Bonn 2.
Reference is also made to the Federal Government's reply to a 'Kleine Anfrage' (Minor Question) concerning
Employment Chances for Higher Education Graduates, submitted by the Opposition Representatives in the Federal
Parliament, 'Antwort der Bundesregierung auf die Kleine Anfrage der Fraktion der CDU/CSU zu den
Berufschancen junger Hochschulabsolventen' (29.8.1977), Bundestags-Drucksache 8/860, also to be obtained
through Verlag Dr Heger (cf. above).
[4] Informationen Bildung Wissenschaft (IBW) (1977) no. 11, pp. 211-216.
[5] Cf. Berufsbildungsbericht 1978 (Report on Vocational Education and Training) (Bonn); also to be obtained through
Verlag Dr Heger (see above).
[6] LUTZ, BURKART (1978) Zur A nalyse der Entwicklungstendenzen der Qualifikationsstruktur und der Beziehung Bildung-
Beschäftigung, unpublished manuscript.