Basic vocational training year

The basic vocational training year ( BGJ ) and the vocational preparation year (BVJ) offer school leavers who have not found a regular apprenticeship the opportunity to complete a state training year or a vocational year at a vocational school.

The following applies:

• In some federal states, it is compulsory for those under 17 to complete such a year.
• From the age of 18 it is no longer mandatory and can be canceled at any time. The obligation to attend vocational school expires at the age of 18. (There is still compulsory vocational school in the training relationship for adults)

Basic vocational training year

Depending on the direction (e.g. business and administration → commercial), the basic vocational training year is the first year of training in this direction and can be credited accordingly. In most of the old federal states , this crediting is mandatory by the training company that trains you as a trainee according to this measure . In all other federal states it is an “optional” provision. It corresponds to the secondary school level.

Vocational preparation year

The vocational preparation year is a preparatory year and cannot be counted as the first year of training, but school dropouts have the opportunity to catch up on their secondary school leaving certificate. In North Rhine-Westphalia this is called the “career orientation year”, in Schleswig-Holstein “training preparation year (AvJ)”. It therefore corresponds to the secondary school level .

In some federal states (e.g .: Saxony ) there is a training place subsidy - for example in the form of a one-time grant - for those companies that take on these graduates . There is no salary in the vocational preparation year.

history

The introduction of the basic vocational training year as the first year of vocational training is one of the most important educational policy projects supported by the federal government , the states , the trade unions , the employers' associations and the political parties .

The goals of the BGJ in 1978 were:

• Self-experience of the young people in an occupational field and not too early to commit to an individual occupation in order to improve their choice of occupation in the sense of a tiered career choice decision ,
• Combination of elements of vocational and general education with the aim of creating qualifications in training that open up the same opportunities as comparable general school qualifications . In addition, there is the possibility that young people without a school-leaving qualification can make up for it,
• Providing a broad basic vocational education that facilitates the transition from general school education to the world of work,
• Preparation and not too early specialization of the entry level of vocational training with the aim of improved professional mobility and flexibility.

VET programs can both full-time school as well as in operation and professional school (the co-operative form dual training ) will be taught. Of the 628,000 students who completed a year of basic vocational training in 1977, 52 percent took part in the full-time school form. 5,300 students (8 percent) completed a year of basic vocational training in a cooperative manner and 40 percent of the students used the various special forms of the basic vocational training year.

Crediting Ordinance

The Crediting Ordinance came into force in 1978. According to this, the companies are obliged to count the basic vocational training year in full or in part against the vocational training duration. The industry and the trades created their own guidelines for crediting the BGJ in the training period, as they were of the opinion that the associated shortening of the in-company training period was irresponsible. So it happened that trainees who came directly from the Hauptschule were preferred to those who had completed a year of basic vocational training that would have been counted towards the training period. The trade unions advocated full crediting of the basic vocational training year in the training period and also advocated that this BGJ should not follow 9 years of compulsory schooling , but 10 years in secondary school.

Due to the Vocational Training Reform Act, crediting from August 1, 2009 is only possible with the consent of the training company.

Web links

• Theses on the basic vocational training year (PDF file, 32 kB), No. 7, BABl 12/1971, p. 752, Federal Committee for Vocational Training, November 2, 1971, Federal Institute for Vocational Training

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handelsblatt of July 5, 1978.
2. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) of July 21, 1978.