Purpose-Free Vocational Education in Vocational Schools

The legal basis for dual vocational education and training often differs significantly between countries. For example, Germany regulates dual vocational education with an economic law, whereas Switzerland regulates it with an education law. This affects the content, objectives, and quality of training. In Germany, cultural sovereignty lies with the federal states. This means that the federal government may not enact an education law. However, the BBiG regulates important elements of dual vocational training, such as occupational development, the development of training regulations, and the examination system. This enhances the value of the training company as a place of learning and significantly downgrades the value of the school as a place of learning, for which the federal states are responsible. This is in contradiction to a remarkable initiative of the KMK in 1991: the ability to help shape the world of work and society in a socially and ecologically responsible manner. The implementation of this guiding principle in vocational schools does not succeed because the integration of vocational schools into the dual system is regulated in the BBiG. This is particularly evident in the step-by-step training for two-year industrial electronics occupations enacted under § 26 BBiG. The formulation of the German Education Council, according to which vocational school instruction must encompass the entire context of the causes and effects of vocational action and lead to their critical reflection, prohibits a reduction of vocational school instruction to the middle aspect of the technical education.