Projekte: Berufsbildung
 

Thematic Network Project: European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research, COST A-11: "Flexibility, transferability, mobility as targets of vocational education and training", Workgroup 4 ´Initial Conditions´

Relevant official papers of the EU focus on the importance of vocational education and training. Flexibility, transferability, mobility are the central goals set, for example, by the Green Paper on Innovation or by the White Paper on Education and Training in the European Union. Main points of concern are employment aspects, innovation and quality of life. Societal "megatrends" dramatically challenge working and private life conditions and require new sophisticated concepts of vocational education. These "megatrends" to be responded to are: ageing of the population, increasing heterogeneity of students by school level, migration, individualization of value patterns, the internationalization of economy, an increasing complexity of research, the extensive use of new information and communication technologies, new concepts of production and an increase of service activities. These developments generally require a higher qualification structure of the labour force.

These trends go along with high rates of unemployment (in nearly all highly industrialized states) and a shortage of skilled workers and clerks. Systems of life-long learning or of training-on-the-job do not seem to work very well.

With regard to the increasing importance of upgrading the labour forces and the fight against unemployment (in particular among young people), new research approaches emerge in nearly all highly industrialized countries. The new research agenda must incorporate a broad range and a flexible mix of relevant approaches, providing a concise conceptual and theoretical basis for research. A decisive step forward is the concentration on teaching-learning aspects and not on organizational and institutional aspects as is the case in most countries. Social sciences can contribute directly to the development of the teaching-learning dimension of vocational education and training. Correspondent social research in a number of related disciplines and fields is therefore recognized as being directly relevant to a successful restructuring of vocational education and training.

Against this background the Working Group 4 ´Initial conditions´ is focusing on the following issues:

a) Identification of advantageous and disadvantageous factors for action- and activity-oriented teaching and learning strategies: the role of employers, enterprises, unions, teaching and learning traditions, etc.

b) Identification of needs for the training of fulltime and part-time teachers and trainers with regard to process conditions - especially the effective use of complex teaching-learning arrangements/environments.

c) Identification of a new self-image of teachers and trainers with regard to their activities in complex situations and to the needs of fostering self-directed learning of students and apprentices.
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