Cross-border association training

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Cross-border group training (GVA) is the term used for longer-term training phases abroad.

Apprentices who have a training contract in Germany can complete up to a quarter of their training time abroad. In this way, you can acquire intercultural skills in particular. These skills are becoming more and more important in the course of the internationalization of the economy in professional life. During their stay abroad, trainees experience their job from a different perspective. You get to know other work processes and other cultures. In addition to their technical qualifications, they can improve their foreign language skills and develop their independence and self-confidence. From the company's point of view, this increases the versatility and flexibility of the apprentices.

The Vocational Training Act (BBiG) provides the legal basis for internationalized training . It was amended in 2005. In § 2 para. 3 BBiG states: "Parts of the training can be carried out abroad if this is in the training objective. Their total duration should not exceed a quarter of the training period specified in the training regulations. ” In the course of the internationalization of the economic markets, the proportion of trainees who integrate a stay abroad into their training is also increasing in other countries. The respective national regulations apply to them.

Cross-border training is the term used for phases abroad that last at least four months during the training period. The domestic (“sending”) training company agrees with one or more companies abroad to train the trainee together, i.e. in a network. Parts of the training are thus relocated abroad. The term cross-border training partnership is therefore also used as a synonym for cross-border training.

The companies and the trainees conclude a contract that regulates the framework conditions such as financing, period, insurance cover, etc. An essential part of the contract is also a training plan that is drawn up jointly by the sending and the receiving company. It determines which training content should be imparted by the receiving company over which period during the foreign phase. The training plan is part of the training contract and must be coordinated with the responsible body, for example the Chamber of Crafts , if the stay abroad lasts more than four weeks.

EU project LaWA - anchoring the GVA in the European education systems

Cross-border joint training has a high priority in European vocational training policy. However, so far only a few trainees have taken advantage of this opportunity in the area of dual vocational training . One of the reasons is certainly that there has been little practical experience and support in carrying out these long-term stays abroad. Together with partners from six European countries, the Münster Chamber of Crafts is therefore developing structures within the framework of an EU-funded project that make cross-border joint training easier and more practicable for all those involved.

Learn and Work Abroad (LaWA) - This is how cross-border, high-quality training in the craft is to be called in future , which enables young people to have new career opportunities and cross-border cooperation for companies.

The aim of the project is to create the conditions so that GVA can be used as a natural qualification offer in initial training in an uncomplicated and profitable way. The legal and financial framework conditions must be clarified in order to optimize the structures. Comprehensible assessment procedures for additional competences acquired abroad must be clarified and, if necessary, developed (keyword: ECVET ). It must be ensured that the school instruction is continued during the period abroad. This helps adolescents to avoid learning deficits and takes away their fear of not achieving a good exam result due to long absence. For this purpose, didactic procedures and content are developed. The central instrument will be an internet-based learning platform.

The project aims to create the basis for cross-border joint training to become a standard offer in European education systems in the long term.

Information for all GVA actors can be found as an overview on a checklist, divided into before, during and after the stay abroad. In addition, the following paragraphs offer each individual actor the opportunity to view information that is only relevant for himself.

trainee

  • The cover letter is an example of a cover letter to a potential host company abroad. It contains all aspects that are essential for an application "from a distance". Because it is important to make the application meaningful, as a personal interview usually cannot take place due to the spatial distance.
  • The trainee uses the logbook to document phases abroad during their training. It describes which technical, linguistic, intercultural and personal knowledge and skills he / she has acquired abroad. The guest company has the opportunity to comment on the stay from his point of view. This makes it clear what the trainee has learned in addition to his usual training. This is interesting both for the training company and for other companies to which the trainee applies later. Trainees create their own logbook with the help of a [description ...] and grant their own company, the guest company and, if necessary, the vocational college or persons of their choice access authorization.
  • In the teaching agreement, the trainee and vocational college stipulate how the school-based learning material is conveyed during the stay abroad. The content and the forms of communication are coordinated. The teaching agreement was drawn up from a German perspective. It should serve as a template for vocational colleges in other countries. When sending your own trainees, it can be adapted to the respective national circumstances.
  • The content pool is an overview of available online learning content in order to prepare and support stays abroad. It is aimed at teachers and trainees. Practical experience shows that trainees use the content pool to improve their own language skills in preparation for a stay abroad. The teachers make little use of the content pool because most of them work with books and scripts.
  • Guest access to the learning platform - DistanceLearningSystem DLS®: Here, trainees get an impression of the communication tools and media that are available during their stay abroad. Login data: ID: guest access & password: guest access.
  • With the help of the grid for self-assessment, individual levels of language skills can be named in a simple and understandable way and always up to date. It is a common European framework of reference for languages ​​of the Council of Europe.

Sending companies

  • If a period of training abroad lasts longer than four weeks, a training plan agreed with the responsible body is required ( Section 76 (3) BBiG). The training company agrees a corresponding training plan with the receiving company on the basis of the training regulations. The plan must be submitted to the responsible body, e.g. the Chamber of Crafts.
  • A contract should be concluded between the companies involved and the trainee, which regulates the framework conditions for the training phase abroad. The model contract is a proposal for an agreement between the German company, the foreign company and the trainee. Individual clauses can be added, changed or deleted as required.
  • The trainee uses the logbook to document phases abroad during their training. He / she describes which technical, linguistic, intercultural and personal knowledge and skills he / she has acquired abroad. The guest company has the opportunity to comment on the stay from his point of view. This makes it clear what the trainee has learned in addition to his usual training. This is interesting both for the training company and for other companies to which the trainee applies later.

Hospitality

  • The certificate is used to document and evaluate learning outcomes that the trainee has acquired during stays abroad.

At the end of the stay abroad, the certificate is filled out by the host company and the trainee and signed together.

Vocational colleges

  • The overview of the didactic models is the summary of the possible didactic scenarios to accompany a stay abroad. The didactic models are only aimed at teachers. Practical experience shows that teachers use the script and tasks model and the hourly protocol model to accompany trainees during their stay abroad.
  • In the teaching agreement, the trainee and vocational college stipulate how the school-based learning material is conveyed during the stay abroad. The content and the forms of communication are coordinated. The teaching agreement was drawn up from a German perspective. It should serve as a template for vocational colleges in other countries. When sending your own trainees, it can be adapted to the respective national circumstances.
  • The content pool is part of the materials and quality concepts that are offered to teachers, trainees and companies to prepare for and support a stay abroad. Freely available links are supplemented by computer or web-based training courses, which are made available free of charge or against a license and can be used via a learning management system (e.g. DistanceLeaningSystem DLS). An overview of available content and of [specialist publishers and portals] that sell content supports teachers in their search for ready-made e-learning content.
  • The feedback questionnaire is used to collect experiences that teachers have had with GVA. The feedback questionnaire is only aimed at teachers.

E-learning in cross-border joint training

In preparation for a GVA measure, a teaching agreement is agreed between trainees and teachers at the vocational school. The practical implementation of the teaching agreement governs the exchange of learning material (scripts, books, exercises, class minutes, photos, web basic training and other online content) between teacher and student. In order to use suitable online learning materials, teachers use the GVA content pool and materials they have created themselves. Communication between teacher and student can be realized through various media: e-mail, telephone, Skype and ICQ, learning management systems, GVA logbook and Web 2.0 applications. The frequency of communication is also specified in the teaching agreement. These activities are referred to as e-learning within the GVA. In order to implement the teaching agreement, the teachers select a didactic scenario. A selection of different scenarios was described and documented in cooperation with vocational colleges as part of the GVA project. Practical experience shows that the "script and exercises" and "lesson protocol" models are mainly used to accompany a student during a long-term stay abroad.

A concept called MobiL (Moodle-accompanied intercultural learning) was brought into being by the Paul Spiegel vocational college of the Warendorf district (European school). The MobiL concept was developed for all classes with the aim of accompanying long-term stays abroad. Two essential elements of this concept are the "internship diary", which must be filled out daily by the students who are abroad, and a forum for communication with classmates and for the exchange of information and learning materials (e.g. hourly minutes , Pictures, exercises & scripts). An important forum rule is that the person who starts a post is responsible for answering questions. During their stay abroad, students communicate with their teachers via email. In addition, Internet applications are used for communication that the young people already use in other contexts (e.g. Skype and ICQ).

Educational organizations

  • In the LaWA project, various trainees have already been able to complete parts of their training abroad. So far, these have been mainly young people who are training to become carpenters or metal workers (specializing in construction technology). Some of the stays were organized between German and French companies. In addition to the general added value of stays abroad (e.g. increased competence in the area of ​​intercultural skills), all the companies involved in the project also emphasize technical added value. It is precisely these professional added values ​​that were examined in an exemplary job description comparison. For this purpose, French equivalents were identified for the German job profiles 'metal worker (specializing in construction technology)' and 'carpenter' and, finally, technical differences were determined using a special comparison grid. It turned out that even with very closely related European job profiles there is technical added value for both sides. In other words: Exchanges can already be advantageous for French and German trainees from a purely technical perspective. The comparison method and the results of the comparison are presented in the paper Comparison of job profiles.

The relation to ECVET

The ECVET system (European Credit Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training) is intended to facilitate the recognition of knowledge, skills and competences that have been acquired by trainees during stays abroad. To this end, the ECVET system suggests, among other things, that only the learning outcomes that are acquired through qualifications and / or stays abroad should be considered. This perspective means that the 'inputs', i.e. H. Types of learning, locations, duration, etc. to be neglected when assessing the content to be credited in favor of a purely (learning) result-oriented view. In other words: In order to be able to make statements about mutual crediting with the large variety of different formal educational (sub) systems, educational programs and qualifications in Europe, one only looks at the success of educational measures. H. on the learning outcomes. (Further information on ECVET can be found on the website of the European Commission).

The orientation towards learning outcomes can be described as the most important feature of ECVET and can also be found in other European transparency instruments such as the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). This and the ideal-typical course of an ECVET mobility measure were taken up in the LaWA project and used in the development of instruments and procedures. The aim of the developed instruments and procedures was to support the craft businesses and trainees involved in the project in organizing and carrying out their long-term stays abroad.

The following instruments and procedures were developed in the project:

  1. Checklist:
    Based on the ideal-typical course of stays abroad, the checklist contains specific, practice-oriented assistance for (craft) companies.
  2. Training plan and teaching agreement:
    Dispatchers and host companies as well as schools make agreements on the learning outcomes that are expected of the trainee during the stay abroad. The training plan and the teaching agreement are document templates for these agreements.
  3. Logbook:
    Representing aptitude diagnostic procedures as addressed by ECVET, an instrument was developed with the logbook that serves to document learning outcomes as validly as possible. At the same time it supports communication between trainees and companies during stays abroad.
  4. Certificate:
    The recognition of learning outcomes acquired abroad in the sense of exempting individual contents of the final examination is currently not legally possible in Germany. At the same time, both trainees and companies express particular interest in the validation and certification of learning outcomes that go beyond the typical 'training learning outcomes'. This concern was taken up when developing the certificate.
  5. Job
    description comparison : With the help of a specially developed methodology for curriculum analysis, differences in content between exemplary German and French job profiles were determined. These differences are arguments in favor of sending trainees abroad, as they show technical added value that the trainees could learn, especially in the host company.

Information on the individual products can be found at www.lawa-quality.eu/produkte.html. A detailed description will be available towards the end of the year in the paper Diart, M. (in press): Potentials of the ECVET credit point system for cross-border joint training in the skilled trades. Cologne. appear at www.fbh.uni-koeln.de.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Checklist (unofficial draft)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.learn-and-work-abroad.eu  
  2. ↑ The European credit system for vocational education and training (ECVET) ( English ) European Commission. Retrieved April 25, 2019.