From lifelong employment to lifelong learning – Further training strategy developing

Lost are the days when lifelong employment was a possibility to dream of for the youngsters leaving school for the working life. It was an industrial society reality and possibility that does not exist in the digital society. Today the destined path of lifelong employment has been erased in favour of lifelong learning. In this spirit the chunks of knowledge delivery that the formal industrial society school system produced has to be transformed to learning causality and more favour practice.

With this background the German Government’s increasing focus on an up to date further education strategy is well-adapted to the realities of the digital society. The National Continuing Education Strategy (NWS) is developed under the joint leadership of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) and is carried out with close involvement of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK), the federal states, business associations and social partners as well as the Federal Employment Agency (BA).

NWS

Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger explains:

“We can only successfully shape the challenging transformation processes with well-trained specialists. That is why we need a national culture of further education. We are now taking the next step with the national further training strategy, which we have further developed together with our partners. As the Ministry of Opportunities, my house focuses on facilitating access to further training for everyone, improving the chances of advancement for everyone and creating a more innovative, future-proof vocational training system. I would like to emphasize: Academic and professional education are different but equal. Both are great stepping stones to a successful career. With the excellence initiative for vocational training, we are making vocational training more modern and innovative so that it becomes even more attractive for the skilled workers of tomorrow.”

From the lifelong employment to the further training platform

Special attention is paid to groups of people who have so far had below-average participation in further education, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often lack the time and financial resources for more efforts in further education. 

The core of the strategy is to develop a national online further training platform. This platform helps all those interested in finding suitable further education offers and funding opportunities. From the beginning of 2024, the digital offer is to go into operation in stages. 

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