Vocational training after graduation - advantages and disadvantages
// BySimone Janson

Is Continuing Vocational Training a Suitable Alternative to a Postgraduate Course? It can be a practical addition to the theoretical study - if certain conditions are met.

Advantages of continuing vocational training

Despite all of the practical aspects, postgraduateCourses are often quite theoretical. In addition, they can usually only be completed with considerable expenditure of time and money. The question therefore arises: Are there alternatives to university training? And after a theory-heavy course, does a qualification make sense that is directly related to practical working life? Continuing professional development can be the right path here. In the majority of cases, however, it leads completely away from the original subject to completely different professional fields. However, this may be an acceptable consequence for graduates who have already wanted to turn their back on traditional humanities work areas. However, further training is not always the same. In order to find the right offer in the confusing market, you have to consider a number of points when searching.

What is professional development? - definition

The German BildungsrIn 1970 at defined the overall complex of further training as “continuation or resumption of organized learning after completion of a differently extended first phase of training ... The end of the first phase of training and thus the start of possible further training is usually characterized by entering full employment ... Short-term learning or Training in the workplace does not belong in the framework of further training ”(German Education Council 1970, 197). In specialist literature, continuing education is often referred to as adult education (cf.Tippelt 1999, 11). Three types of educational opportunities are summarized under the heading of continuing education:

General training

Thegeneral training includes all further training offers that are not directly job-related. In practice, it is not always easy to distinguish it from professional training, as key qualifications such as the ability to work in a team, creativity or media skills are becoming increasingly important in the workplace. Foreign languages ​​serve the general development of personality as well as better communication at work. General continuing education also includes political and cultural continuing education.

University education

The aim of university further education is to keep the knowledge of the participants up to date after graduation or to expand it, just as postgraduateCourses do. However, continuing education at universities is also open to employed people without a first degree who now want to learn how to work scientifically.

continuing Professional Education

Continuing vocational training is the classic field for courses to deepen or supplement professional knowledge. What used to be known as advanced training is now known as “advanced training” in Book III of the Social Code. In practice there is also between retraining and advancement trainingA distinction is made between training and adaptation training.

Xpert

Xpert was introduced by the German adult education centers and comparable European educational institutions and is the umbrella brand for imparting professional and personal skills for everyday work. Xpert certificates can for example be acquired in the areas of PC use, business, personal business skills and culture communication skills. The participants determine the allocation of the Xpert events themselves. How this works can be demonstrated using the example of Xpert Personal Business Skills: Participants can choose from 12 seminars in four areas of competence - organizing, presenting, negotiating and moderating. Each seminar ends with a written exam, a certificate is issued for passing it. After completing three modules from at least two areas of competence, the “Xpert Personal Business Skills” certificate is issued, after two additional modules from at least one other area of ​​competence, the “Xpert Personal Business Skills Pro” certificate is issued. Attending a workshop leads to the final “Xpert Personal Business Skills Master”. The price for the seminars is usually moderate: with a maximum of ten participants, the price for three seminars or 60 lessons is 220 €. Xpert training courses are funded by the Federal Employment Agency. The Xpert certificates are not professional qualifications, they are not recognized by the state. However, the name Xpert stands for high quality advanced training with Europe-wide standardized content and exams.

Training and retraining

The Vocational Training Act divides vocational training into advanced training and retraining. A further training course serves to maintain or expand the professional knowledge and skills of employees or the unemployed or to adapt them to the current level of knowledge in an occupation. The retraining, on the other hand, should enable them to take on a new professional activity. In both cases, the content, type, aim, duration and examinations can be regulated by ordinances of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. However, state regulations are only absolutely necessary in the case of retraining for a recognized training occupation (BBiG § 1, 3-4; § 25; § 46-47). The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) offers an overview of possible advanced training professions on its website.

degrees

In contrast, the majority of further training qualifications are not regulated by law. Only some of the training courses are state-run and recognized throughout Germany. Often the trainers issue their own certificates, the acceptance of which on the job market is not always guaranteed. It is therefore not easy to compare further training courses at national level. It is even more difficult to compare further training courses abroad, as the Bologna Process has so far hardly created binding regulations for the recognition of qualifications in vocational training. There are already some suggestions and ideas that