Abstracts

60 solution to its vocational education issue. One of the most successful examples of the implementation of a dual system is that of the German Vocational Education and Training (VET) program. Both the World Bank (Eichhorst et al., 2012) and the OECD (2017) acknowledge Germany’s VET model as high performing, modern, and future-oriented; 51.5% of German upper secondary students enter VET programs as a route to employment (Renold et al., 2018). Germany’s high-quality VET system not only helps minimize its youth unemployment, keeping the rate very low, even during recession years, but also supplies German companies with well-trained employees, helping create an industrial powerhouse with one of the most productive workforces. Germany’s dual system ensures the matching of skills training and labor market needs; as such, it remains the core of the country’s vocational education system. The success of the dual system in Germany is based on three aspects: high level of standardization, labor market–driven curriculum, and integration of high school graduates. First, the system typically operates under strict regulations and legal standards. The Chambers of Industry and Commerce monitor training quality and conduct the midterm and final examinations as well as the craftsmen’s examinations. They also set formal requirements for all companies providing firm- based VET to ensure that an apprenticeship has a pedagogical purpose that is different from normal coursework. In addition, the Chambers make sure that vocational training is occupation-led instead of company-based, and all certificates are standardized across all industries throughout the country. Such high levels of standardization enable VET certificates to be transferred across companies, thus serving as keys to access jobs in the occupational labor market (Eichhorst et al., 2012). Second, the dual system is based on co- determination between employers’ associations and trade unions with regard to regulation, curriculum design, certification, and funding. Employers and unions have the right to draft proposals for occupational training programs and negotiate provisions governing apprenticeships through collective agreements to ensure that their interests, which are the same as those of the broader labor market, are taken into account (Wieland, 2015). With more than 60% of the graduates employed by their training companies, the dual system functions as the main pathway for youth labor market entry in Germany (Solga et al., 2014), evidence that companies prefer to train their own labor supply through the program. According to the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (2018), at the end of 2017, 427,227 companies participated in the apprenticeship system—19.8% of all companies in Germany. With all the workplace-led and skills-oriented training, the dual system is very reactive to the labor market and ensures a smooth school-to- work transition. Third, the dual system functions as the major nonacademic route for high school graduates by giving them formal access to the labor market as skilled workers, craftsmen, or clerks, thereby helping to limit the number of unskilled employees to a consistently low proportion within the labor market. In addition, because dual apprenticeships exist in nearly all branches of the German economy, this model plays a significant role in initial training for those graduates transitioning into vocational-oriented occupations. The dual system is popular not only in Germany but also in Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark. Although there are some minor differences between the countries’ dual systems, the major characteristics are identical: the apprenticeship contract with the training firm, having both firm-based training and school-based components, the system’s governance by both government and the social partners (employer associations and unions), and standardized training through vocational training acts and training ordinances (Solga et al., 2014). In recent years, additional countries in Europe, such as Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Slovakia, and Latvia, have started adoption of the structures of the dual educational system. The model also has drawn interest in a number of Asian countries such as China and South Korea as well as in the African nation of Mali. Collectively, the success of a dual system approach in these varied countries