The German Dual System: educational Utopia?

Abstract

The German Dual System is now a source of pride at home and emulation abroad. For example, the reforms which the British government proposed in 1991 to apply to post- compulsory education, as detailed in its White Paper Education and Training for the 21st Century (1991), would effectively set up in the United Kingdom structures similar to those which have already existed in Germany for decades. It is therefore timely to examine the recent development of the Dual System. In 1990 there were 1.8 million young persons (40% female, 60% male) in training under the Dual System-that is, 70% of the age cohort (BMBW, 1990, p. 1). The fact that in the early 1970s only 50% of the age cohort was involved gives an indication of the developmental impetus of this education/training process. Yet despite its manifest success it suffers from certain problems, and it is the aim of the present paper to analyse its strengths and weaknesses. The Dual System, like most important institutions in German public life, has a legal basis: the Vocational Education Law (Berufsbildungsgesetz (BBiG)). This was first passed in 1969 by the CDU/CSU/SPD Coalition, and revised in 1990 in preparation for impending German re-unification (cf. Jobst, 1990), the aim being to apply it as quickly as possible to