On the Justification and Structure of Industrial-Technical Subjects as University Subjects

Three models for the study of vocational specializations have emerged: (1) vocational specializations as independent university “industrial-technical sciences”; (2) connection of vocational (industrial-technical) specializations to engineering courses; and (3) vocational specializations as university of applied sciences education. The subjects of the vocational specializations deal with the contents and forms above all of (technical) work organized in the form of a profession and its constitution through technology related to the vocational field, work, and company organization as well as organizational development, the job profiles and curricula as well as the moments of industrial culture and industrial society that shape professional work. With this didactic conception of a vocational and work-related technology teaching, the essential cornerstones for the content-related and methodical design of the vocational disciplines as university subjects in teaching and research are marked. The transfer of vocational teacher training to the universities was associated with a considerable loss of importance of subject didactics and subject methodology. The subject didactic training of teachers was seen more as a task of the study seminars, subject leaders, and mentors at the training schools. The broad introduction of vocational specializations as university subjects in Germany has failed. Their establishment would require broad and decisive support from education and science policy as well as a willingness on the part of universities to reform. A key starting point could be the realization that the quality of vocational education and training is a very decisive factor in international quality competition.