Learning at vocational schools

Vocational education and training in the Federal Republic of Germany takes account of the special features of a federal system. Because of the "cultural sovereignty of the federal states" the jurisdiction and responsibility for the vocational education and training system lies with the sixteen federal states.

There are a variety of concepts and solutions at the vocational and technical schools in Germany with regard to quality assurance and quality development. Priorities and stages of development vary. The instruments of external and internal evaluation have, however, been introduced in all federal states in the meantime and now extend to the schools of general education as well as the vocational schools.

Many of the federal states have taken up projects to strengthen the individual responsibility of schools. The majority of the federal states are working with specific quality management systems in the field of vocational education and training. They have often developed state-specific variants of such systems based on the common systems of Q2E, ISO and EFQM. They meet the requirements of the EQAVET process with regard to the quality cycle (see DEQA-VET overview map/vocational schools). There are also initial instances of collaboration at the state level: for example, the states that work along the lines of Q2E maintain regular exchanges in the twice-yearly meetings of the States Forum.

The different quality management systems provide for the possibility of certification in different ways. In connection with the use of education vouchers, an AZAV certification of schools is under consideration.