Study 'Implementation of the admission and crediting regulations of federally regulated advanced training regulations'

In the largely unregulated continuing education sector, which is organized according to market economy principles, one segment of continuing vocational training occupies a special position. These are the vocational further training qualifications, which are uniformly regulated nationwide by further training regulations according to § 53 BBiG and § 42 HwO. With the exception of the professions named in § 53 Para. 3, these regulations are issued as statutory orders by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in agreement with the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and regulate in particular the examination requirements. In view of the further development of the education system in initial and continuing vocational education and training and the demand for greater permeability, this continuing training, which is regulated on a nationwide basis, is becoming increasingly important.

On behalf of the BMBF, the Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (f-bb) in cooperation with the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) in the VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH (VDI/VDE-IT) is investigating the implementation of the admission and crediting regulations of nationally uniformly regulated continuing education and training regulations within the area of responsibility of the BMBF by the responsible bodies.

The aim of the qualitative and explorative study is to record the application of the catch-all norm for the admission to continuing education examinations and the implementation of the credit regulations for comparable examination performances, as practiced by the chambers for continuing education under the responsibility of the BMBF. The following questions, among others, will be answered:

How often do the chambers of commerce recognize competencies and qualifications comparable to the standard requirements when admitting candidates to further education examinations? How high is the proportion of pre-qualifications acquired abroad? How important are informally acquired competencies?

• How often do the chambers credit comparable examination results to the continuing education examinations? What is the proportion of examination achievements acquired abroad?
• Which standards and criteria do the chambers apply when recognizing comparable competencies and qualifications to the regular admission requirements and when crediting comparable examination results? How do they implement these standards and criteria? Do they draw on experience or expert knowledge?
• Is it possible to determine a nationwide equal crediting practice of comparable examination performances and a nationwide uniform admission practice to the further education examinations?