QEK: Profitability and Quality in Vocational Education and Training: Results

The QEK tool has been used in several regions (Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, and also in South Africa and China). In the meantime, the QEK database includes thousands of cases of in-company vocational training. The data show that the cost-benefit ratios of the companies vary considerably. If one creates a scatter diagram on the basis of a profitability-quality matrix, the result is a typology with four characteristic forms of in-company training as well as a correlation coefficient for the connection between the profitability and quality of training. A case study (Feintechnik GmbH with 35 employees and including seven trainees): In the course of 2003 all employees of the company were prepared for the new training concept: The core objective was to realize learning and working on value-adding work assignments as far as possible throughout the entire training. From the first day of training, the trainees are trained in value-adding work processes in the company reality and work productively on work assignments in the real working environment. The results: The quality of training proves to be particularly high. Already in the second year of training, the training income exceeds the training costs and in the third year of training this difference proves to be particularly high. Conclusion: “The vocational training at Feintechnik GmbH shows that small and medium-sized enterprises in the high-tech sector can not only provide high-quality training but also cover their costs” (Rittmeyer, Haasler, lernen & lehren 22:125–131, 2007, 130).