Vocational education and training: dual education and economic crises

In Denmark, Germany and a number of other countries Vocational Education and Training is based on the principle of dual education. This means that the apprentices spend one part of their education and training at a vocational school and another part in a company or firm directly involved in ordinary working life. The close connection to working life implies that the transition from being apprentice to becoming a trained employee is relatively easy compared to school based VET systems. The principle of dual education within VET is known worldwide for its ability to provide the labour market with highly qualified labour which is able to adjust to new and changing conditions and introduction of new technology. Furthermore skilled labour educated and trained according to dual education has a very high mobility on the labour market. Dual education secures tight connections between the educational system and businesses and enterprises because of the involvement in the educational processes and finally the principal of dual education is a relatively cheap way to educate skilled labour compared to school based educational systems within VET. The economic crisis put pressure on the principle of dual education within vocational education and training (VET) because the firms and companies are less motivated to provide the necessary number of training places for the apprentices. On the one hand this causes problems for the young people wanting to take a vocational education as they are not able to finalize it without access to a proper training place. On the other hand it provides problems for businesses and enterprises because there will be a shortage of skilled labour in the future. In this paper a number of approaches to comply with this challenge from countries which organize their VET on the basis of dual education are presented. The examples come from Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Norway. The purpose of the paper is to provide knowledge and inspiration across countries about different ways of handling the principle of dual education in difficult economic situations and to create a basis for making the principle less fragile during economic down turns. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.