Vocational education

The vocational education is a branch of pedagogy . Her focus is on vocational training , the training, further education and further training processes of those already in professional life or people who are striving for a professional job for the first time.

Vocational education in Germany

In Germany, the dual system of vocational training is characteristic, with the participation of the state ( vocational school ) and business ( company ) as the two main learning locations.

The qualified professional pedagogue (Dipl.-Berufspäd. Or DBP), who has completed a degree at a university, is authorized to teach at vocational schools. Since these are teacher training courses, they often also end with the state examination or, following the Bologna reform, are organized as Bachelor / Master courses.

For a few years now, there has also been a vocational training qualification in professional advancement training, which follows on from and builds on the training qualification of company trainers and is at the highest level in the system of advanced training professions ( German qualifications framework ).

Vocational education as a scientific sub-discipline of education emerged as an academic subject along with the academization of vocational school teacher training in the 1950s, which manifested itself in the establishment of a first professorship at the University of Frankfurt and its occupation by Heinrich Abel .

The main task of vocational education is to develop scientifically sound methods that relate to the organization and implementation of job-related qualification and learning processes. At the same time, it develops research methods that relate to the implementation of learning processes as well as to the investigation of the framework conditions and the further development of the system of vocational training. A sub-area also relates to the promotion of people who do not easily make the transition to training and work (promotion of the disadvantaged ).

The profession is a central subject of the discipline in the area of ​​tension between the qualification requirements of the economic system on the one hand, the skills that have already been developed that result from the upstream general education system and individual and social interests.

The quality of the vocational training system is based on the economic success of individual companies, the entire economy and the successful transition from training to work. It is therefore closely related to individual and general prosperity. In everyday company training, practical guidance by experienced staff dominates as a step-by-step introduction to the independent performance of the professional tasks of the trainees / vocational school students, in some cases including the guiding text method . In the vocational schools there has been a dissolution of subject-oriented teaching since the 1990s, and along with the discussion about action orientation and the reception of the theory of activity , the Conference of Ministers of Education introduced the learning field concept for the vocational schools .

In the German Society of Educational Sciences there is a section in which the academic actors of professional and business education have come together.

Vocational education in Austria

In Austria, after the Second World War, only business education was able to establish itself as a scientific discipline in the social and economic sciences faculties of universities due to the unity of research and teaching.

Although dual training is an essential part of the vocational training landscape in Austria, the vocational schools and thus also the vocational school teachers were ignored in the academic perception due to the lack of academic teaching positions. University business education research concentrated on subject theoretical teaching in higher schools.

An institutionalization of the training of vocational school teachers as well as of teachers of commercial subject teaching at vocational middle and higher schools did not take place until 1964; first at vocational training institutions, then at vocational training institutes and from 1976 at vocational training academies in Innsbruck, Linz, Graz and Vienna. The research assignment of these institutions was limited to professional pedagogical factual research, the inadequate nature of which was critically recorded by an Austrian working group as part of a UNESCO publication. The extent of this was criticized by an Austrian working group in 1981 as part of a UNESCO publication.

The duration of teacher training for vocational school and subject teachers at these institutions was gradually extended from two to four and finally to six semesters. However, the job title 'vocational school teacher' or 'subject teacher' was only allowed to be used at a school after acceptance into a pragmatic employment relationship (pragmatization).

The 1999 Academies Study Act prepared for the transfer of the vocational educational academies, which had previously been in the post-secondary education sector, to the tertiary education sector.

Since October 1, 2007, newly installed universities of teacher education in Austria have been responsible for vocational education based on the 2005 Higher Education Act. Initially, these teacher training courses were limited to 180 ECTS-AP (6 semesters) ( Bachelor of Education ).

The amendment to the law in the context of the ' Pädagoginnenbildung NEU ' (2012/2013) removed this restriction. All teacher training bachelor’s courses were qualitatively and quantitatively upgraded (8 semesters - 240 ECTS-AP) and a master’s level training was initially stipulated for all teachers in Austria ( Master of Education ).

In the course of further changes in the law, however, the compulsory master’s degree (2 semesters - 60 ECTS-AP) for vocational school teachers and teachers of practical teaching at vocational middle and higher schools was abolished again.

Vocational teacher training courses

The vocational teacher training courses offered at the Pädagogische Hochschule Tirol , the Pädagogische Hochschule Oberösterreich , the Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark and the Pädagogische Hochschule Wien (center universities for vocational training) are classified at the first academic final level under the bachelor's degree teaching post secondary vocational education. Training takes place at this level

-         in the dual vocational training department as well as technology and trade

- in the field of upbringing - education - development support

- in the nutrition department

- in the information and communication department (applied digitization)

- in the department of fashion and clothing technology

- in the social department

- in the Faculty of Agriculture and Nutrition ( only at the University of Agricultural and Environmental Education )

- in the Department of Environment and Natural Sciences (only at the University of Agricultural and Environmental Education )

and as a pedagogical qualification for students with an academic degree in the bachelor's degree 'subject-related studies complementary studies'.

In addition, master's programs for secondary level vocational training are also offered at the center universities for vocational training.

Vocational research at the universities of teacher education

To accelerate research activities at the universities of teacher education, science and profession-oriented work units were installed and staffed with the appropriate scientific expertise. The aim of these work units is a continuous, science-related development of the profession.

The work units in vocational education bundle the relevant subject areas and operate throughout Austria under the respective lead of a responsible university of education:

AE 1: Agriculture and forestry | Environment | applied chemistry and biotechnology

AE 2: Technology, trade and industry | Design and creation | Information and communication technology

AE 3: Health, exercise, nutrition | Gastronomy and groceries

AE 4: Economy and Social Affairs | information and communication

AE 5: Learning and teaching in vocational training under the aspect of diversity

See also

• Business education
• Certified professional pedagogue
• Work pedagogy
• Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research (Austria)
• Pedagogical College
• Dual education
• Education system in Austria

literature

• Arnold Rolf, Lipsmeier Antonius (Hrsg.): Handbook of vocational training . 2nd Edition. Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-15162-2 .
• Felix Rauner: Handbook of vocational training research . Bertelsmann, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 3-7639-3167-8 .
• Brezovich Branimier: T he Vocational Education Academies from a legal point of view. 10 years of teacher training at vocational education academies - 20 years of teacher training institutions for vocational schools. Vienna 1986
• Engelbrecht Helmut: History of the Austrian educational system, upbringing and teaching on the soil of Austria. Vol. 5: From 1918 to the present. Vienna 1988, ISBN 978-3-215-04001-6
• Knarr Walter: Outline of the history of the non-university training of teachers for the vocational school system in Austria (until 1976). In: 10 years of teacher training at vocational education academies - 20 years of teacher training institutions for vocational schools. Vienna 1986
• Rohringer, Josef: The Austrian vocational school teacher. Development and assignment of a teaching post. Salzburg 1970
• Scheipl Josef, Seel Helmut: The Development of the Austrian School System in the Second Republic 1945–1987. Graz 1988, ISBN 3-7011-7195-5
• Seel Helmut, Scheipl Josef: The Austrian education system at the transition into the 21st century. Graz 2004, ISBN 978-3-7011-7388-4

Left

• Quality Assurance Council

Footnotes

1. ↑ Section “Vocational and Business Education” (BWP) ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.