Partial qualification
Partial qualification is a process, the result of which is the partial qualification of the person concerned.
According to the Federal Employment Agency, partial qualifications are uniformly structured units that lead to standardized certificates below the skilled workers' certificate; they are geared towards typical operational work and business processes. Partial qualifications are modular components of an entire state-recognized vocational training course.
Conception
Current programs in Germany for partial qualifications are aimed at adults over 25 years of age who have completed no or outdated vocational training. They primarily serve to integrate into the labor market for unemployed people and people at risk of unemployment and can help with the subsequent acquisition of a professional qualification. It also wants to give refugees an opportunity to enter the labor market.
In recent times, workers-like people in workshops for disabled people have also formed a target group for measures for partial qualification. This is intended to take account of the workshops' “ rehabilitation mandate ”; H. their task of enabling their employees to integrate into the primary labor market .
In contrast to traditional vocational training, employable young people with partial qualifications do not have to complete a two- or three-year period of continuous training in order to avoid the “unskilled” status in the competition on the primary labor market, but rather complete individual modules with a time lag. After each module you acquire a certificate. If employees or persons similar to employees pass all partial qualifications, they can register for the external examination . However, the partial qualifications are only offered for a few specific training courses.
Martin Baethge and Eckart Severing see the advantage of the partial qualification model compared to the mostly school-based, targeted preparation for the external examination in the form of a course that paths to a professional qualification can be individually tested and certified by adding up partial qualifications. They make it easier for both the low-skilled and, if necessary, the participating companies to decide to start late vocational training, they lead to continuous feedback on educational success and they thereby reduce barriers to motivation, which are often the result of long-term school fatigue (resulting in a reluctance to formalize Learning processes) are.
In general, according to Baethge / Severing, the willingness of low-skilled workers to get involved in pursuing a vocational qualification is increasing through a modularized process without the pressure of having to obtain the qualification. The low-skilled see financial restrictions in the first place, which prevent them from participating in longer-term measures that are associated with a loss of income. In an IAB survey from 2013, the unemployed were asked to provide information on their assessment of the suitability of at least one year of further training measures. Almost 64 percent of them agreed with the statement that nobody could guarantee the financial benefits of such further training, a good 44 percent said that they could not afford to forego income for any longer. In third place (28.5 percent) is the assessment that one is “no longer used to learning”. Evidently, bad experiences in their previous education have prevented many low-skilled people from continuing their vocational training.
Offers from employers' associations and educational institutions
The initiative to offer modular post-qualification courses and the provision of certified partial qualifications came from the German government in cooperation with employers' associations. Originally, certified modules were only offered by the employers' associations and educational institutions of the German economy; They have developed the “One TQ better!” seal of approval and a corresponding training program with which partial qualifications can be acquired and certified.
At first, the trade unions and chambers of industry and commerce were skeptical because they were negative about the idea of allowing informal qualifications to be a source of competencies and enhancing the importance of certified partial qualifications. They feared unwanted repercussions on the order of the regulated professions. In the meantime, chambers of industry and commerce are also offering modules with which certified partial qualifications can be acquired.
Partial qualifications can be carried out part-time or full-time, tailored to the apprentice and company. All modules of a profession together result in a complete training in terms of content and thus enable those who (can) acquire the necessary skills to subsequently acquire a full professional qualification. An external examination before the competent chamber is required for this.
Partial qualifications of the "employers' initiative partial qualification" should offer:
- the acquisition of job-related, part-time qualifications from the respective employers' association / regional educational institution that are suitable for work;
- AZAV -certified, standardized modules based on recognized training professions, which end with a competence assessment;
- public funding for job seekers or semi-skilled and unskilled employees in companies;
- possible support up to the external examination in the skilled worker profession.
In 2016, the TQplus partial qualification line was launched for the target group of migrants and people with a refugee background. At TQplus, the professional spectrum of partial qualifications in the first modules in the framework curriculum is supplemented by job-related language and communication training.
Taking into account the cultural and linguistic conditions of the participants, the focus is on imparting specialist vocabulary, preparing for practical activities and dealing with work instructions. All learning processes are supported professionally, linguistically and (work) culturally by an integration guide. In addition, TQplus should convey strategies for actively and successfully shaping the further career path of the participants.
purpose
The modular principle, which is also the basis for older partial qualification concepts, is intended firstly to enable old applicants to transition to regular dual training . Secondly, semi-skilled and unskilled young adults as well as those who drop out of training are to be given a vocational qualification through module-based post-qualification, supported by a qualification grant from SGB III .
According to the Hans Böckler Foundation, “added value”, both for the partially qualified and for employers, results even if, in the end, no full qualification in the form of completed vocational training is achievable: the modules “are also suitable for [...] Young people who are not ready for training [...], provided that their individual needs are adequately methodologically and didactically responded and they are given sufficient time to achieve the competence goal. "
Partial qualification vs. Training to become a specialist
Despite the (provisional) waiver of both measures, the fact that their graduates aim for a skilled worker certificate or equivalent certificates in a coherent training course, programs for partial qualification are not identical to training as a specialist practitioner . This was initiated by the state and is only offered to people who have been certified as disabled . A special feature of training as a specialist practitioner is that it is assumed from the outset that the trainee would not pass the theoretical test at the end of "normal" vocational training due to a lack of necessary cognitive skills (primarily because of a " learning disability ").
Both models represent an attempt to meet the requirement of Article 27 of the UN Disability Rights Convention . From this article lawyers draw the conclusion that people with disabilities have a right to participate in working life in such a way that they are able to pursue gainful employment in the primary labor market after having previously received the best possible qualifications for this purpose.
Bernd Heggenberger, Head of the Education and Employment Promotion Department of the “Oberschwäbische Werkstätten”, shows that it is difficult and involves a lot of effort to get a “worker-like person” in a WfbM fit for the primary labor market. To do this, you need special educational staff, training documents (with reading function) and a conversation at language level A2 as well as appropriately equipped work premises.
history
The concept of partial qualification results from the controversial debate since the 1970s about the introduction of modular systems in vocational training (analogous to the modularization of higher education). The concept was put into practical terms by the “Innovation Group for Vocational Education”, which was launched in 2006 on the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) , in particular through the scientific study “Flexible Training Paths in Vocational Training” initiated by the Innovation Group. .
The historical background to the debate since the year 2000 has been growing problems in the transition from school to the world of work , especially in promoting disadvantaged school leavers. These problems found expression in the 2000s u. a. in the large number of young people without a vocational qualification (2.1 million in the age group 20 to 34 in 2010) and in the growing group of so-called "old applicants". This refers to those interested in training who have not yet found a regular training position due to below-average school performance and who have ended up in vocational preparation measures in the transition system. These were problematized as a “demotivating waiting loop” without interlocking content and effective preparation for vocational training.
The introduction of a modular system often serves disoriented career starters to fundamentally simplify the overly complex system of vocational training.
The unskilled are threatened with a biography that is characterized by a constant change of phases of doing odd jobs and times in which they have to claim wage replacement benefits . This problem is exacerbated in times of a shortage of apprenticeships . The goal of saving employable disadvantaged adolescents and young adults from such a life through partial qualification was overshadowed by the increase in the shortage of skilled workers in the 2010s. This is clear from the fact that employers attach great importance to motivated applicants (albeit “second choice”). The interest of employers to replace skilled workers who are not available on the German labor market and sufficiently competent applicants to replace apprenticeships with people who can be at least partially qualified came to the fore when promoting post-qualification initiatives.
By employment agencies are named as target groups of partial qualification long-term unemployed and people with health problems and rehabilitation needs. Many people in these groups show lack of motivation due to frequent disappointment when attempting to (re) enter the world of work.
The minimum age of 25 in current programs shows that employer organizations and employment agencies are no longer primarily concerned with promoting young people and very young adults, in particular not with people who have just left school (transition problem). The fact that the Federal Employment Agency has launched a “Zukunftsstarter” program that promotes young adults aged 25 and over also plays an important role in concentrating on the age group of 25 to 35-year-olds Employer).
As the current background to efforts to attract people aged 25 or more, Der Spiegel indicates that, despite Agenda 2010, it has not succeeded in significantly reducing the number of long-term unemployed compared to the 2000s. One of the main causes of long-term unemployment in Germany is that those affected by it do not have a vocational qualification, and sometimes even no school qualification. Since the demand for unskilled workers in Germany is relatively low, the people affected have to be qualified if they want to have a chance on the job market. The acquisition of certifications in the context of TQ measures is a target-oriented form of post-qualification.
literature
- Bernd Heggenberger: Shaping educational paths. Experience of a workshop in the further development of professional qualifications . In: Werkstatt: Dialog (Ed .: Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Werkstätten für Behinderten Menschen), edition 1/2018, p. 33 ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Partial qualification: vocational qualification in stages . Bavarian radio . January 7, 2016
- ↑ Partial and post-qualification training for refugees . fluechtlingshelfer.info, December 27, 2016
- ↑ Alexander Bendel, Caroline Richter: The triple mandate of workshops. Pay in the field of tension between rehabilitation - inclusion - profitability . In: Werkstatt-Dialog , 5/2017, p. 31 ff.
- ↑ When a partial qualification makes sense . Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 23, 2017, accessed on August 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Martin Baethge, Eckart Severing: Securing the skilled labor potential through post-qualification (PDF) In: Eckart Severing, Martin Baethge (Ed.): Securing the skilled labor potential through post-qualification. Findings - concepts - need for research . Bielefeld 2015, p. 13 f.
- ↑ Martin Baethge, Eckart Severing: Securing the potential of skilled workers through post-qualification (PDF) In: Eckart Severing, / Martin Baethge (ed.): Securing the potential of skilled workers through post-qualification. Findings - concepts - need for research . Bielefeld 2015, p. 12
- ↑ Martin Baethge, Eckart Severing: Securing the skilled labor potential through post-qualification (PDF) In: Eckart Severing, Martin Baethge (Ed.): Securing the skilled labor potential through post-qualification. Findings - concepts - need for research . Bielefeld 2015, p. 14
- ↑ Partial qualification: step by step to the professional qualification . Educational organization of the Lower Saxony economy
- ↑ Uwe Bies-Herkommer: Employers' initiative partial qualification “One TQ better!” . Bildungswerk der Baden-Württembergischen Wirtschaft e. V.
- ↑ Gernot Mühge: Qualification and partial qualification in transfer companies (PDF) Hans Böckler Foundation . 2017. p. 35
- ↑ Bernd Heggenberger: Shaping educational paths. Experience of a workshop in the further development of professional qualifications. In: Werkstatt: Dialog (Ed .: Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Werkstätten für Behinderten Menschen). Edition 1/2018. P. 35
- ↑ Gernot Mühge: Qualification and partial qualification in transfer companies (PDF) Hans Böckler Foundation . 2017. p. 34 f.
- ↑ We are looking for future starters . Federal Employment Agency, August 5, 2016
- ↑ Florian Diekmann: Long-term unemployed - The forgotten of the job market . Spiegel Online , August 31, 2017
