berufsbildung (PDF)

"berufsbildung" (a journal about research on Vocational education and training in companies and vocational schools) re-emerged after German reunification at the beginning of the 1990s, and features perspectives that are both rich in tradition while remaining in a process of continual modernization. This tradition involves today's most important trends and theoretical innovations in VET and vocational continued education in Germany, while keeping an eye on international developments such as innovative vocational education practices and research in this field. berufsbildung is a forum where everybody in the world of vocational education and company training can get involved in the discussion and participate in a productive transfer between theory and practice. You'll find the latest reports on the state of research, see "practice to practice" discourses initiated, and experience the many different sides of the issues regarding current and future-oriented results from model tests; educational policy programs; regulatory reforms; educational and learning contexts from/in the company, school, and even outside of the school; different areas of vocational education action; continued education; and consultation.
Modernization emerges as a result of continual change in VET and continued education theory and practice. Developments such as the fundamental structural economic and societal changes occurring for (at least) the past decade; the emergence of new professional and competency profiles; demographic shifts; and an increasing need for skilled labor, professional qualification; new challenges for competence and quality development in vocational education; the urgent need for the professionalization of educational personnel; and the orientation towards subjective theoretical aspects and didactic arrangements are all on the horizon of the vocational education debate, not only in Germany, but when it comes to European and international reforms as well. A key element of a modernized vocational education theory and practice will without question be the implementation of issues including gender, diversity, sustainability, and social inclusion. These will need to be foundationally established and developed to achieve structural and didactic innovations in VET and continued education.
berufsbildung takes a continual, reflective, critical look at these issues and aspects of vocational and economic education theory and practice with the aim of offering findings for researchers, students, and teachers in schools and companies. Useful fields of action for continued education, consultation, and training outside of school also emerge.
This first English edition will present selected articles on current issues, providing a glimpse of berufbildung's excellent spectrum of all kinds of issues and methodical variety. You'll enjoy articles on theoretical discourse; educational and policy changes; how VET systems and skilled labor are changing; the educational formation of German's transitional system; professionalization and didactic-curricular changes; issues of socially inclusive vocational education; and the effectiveness of gender in educational structures.