Pontydysgu – Bridge to Learning

Ludger Deitmer has drawn my attention to an interesting article in yesterdays edition of the Weser Kurier newspaper (sadly the article does not appear to be in the online edition). The article was based on interviews with young people undertaking apprenticeship in Bremen in north Germany.

I have previously written in Wales Wide Web about the advantages of the apprenticeship system in Germany as providing high skills and socially prestigious training for young people. Indeed over 50 per cent of school leavers in Germany progress through the apprenticeship system, spending part of their time in companies and part in vocational schools.

In recent years the system has been under pressure due to a shortage of training places, but recent figures suggest this is changing. In Hamburg and Munich there are now surplus apprenticeship training places, in Bremen there is about a balance between places being offered by companies and young people seeking apprenticeship places.

However, attention is now turning to the quality of the training on offer. And Marius Fischer, an apprentice in the logistics industry, was fairly scathing. Apprentices, he said were just given menial work to do, referring to one period of three weeks spent scanning documents into a computer. The so called company training was boring with few learning opportunities. He rarely saw a trainer. Apprentices, he said, were just being treated as cheap labour. “This work is so stupid, a chimpanzee could learn to do it”, he said. A further complaint was that apprentices were not given sufficient experience in different areas of the company to understand the entire social and economic process.

Although there has been some attention paid to quality of training, in Germany and in the European Union, little attention has been paid to the quality of the teaching and learning process. Work based learning can be a powerful form of learning. However, for this to happen it requires the work place to be designed for learning with challenging work and learning tasks. And although managers may play an important role in that workplace and word process design, possibly more important is the role of trainers. A series of research studies have indicated that more and more people are taking some responsibility for training as part of their job. But despite this, and despite a number of well sounding policy initiatives,  little attention has been paid to the training of trainers. Whilst the subject of teacher training is a high priority, there almost seems an assumption that skilled workers can automatically provide training.

Of course Marius Fischer’s experience does not reflect apprenticeship training as a whole in Germany. But is is a reminder of the importance of teaching and learning processes for young people and that the development of rich learning processes cannot be left to chance be it in the school or in the workplace.

Again I have disappointed myself and possible readers by letting my blog go quiet after the Christmas and New Year break. Looking back, the return to project work after holidays was overshadowed by several efforts that did not leave much energy for blogging. The imperative that was hanging upon me (and my colleagues): “Try to catch up with the tight schedules and  put in some new bids.” So, we were working our ways through and there was little time to look forward, backward or sideways.

However, this is precisely the trap that I or  we (speaking for my colleagues as well) should avoid. It appears to me that we tend to get squeezed to produce the promised project results (“survival documents”) and to concentrate with all our capacity on that. However, in order to draw conclusions from our working and learning we need to be able to produce reflective commentaries (“surplus documents”) and to share our learning results.

From this perspective I am afraid that we have gou ourselves hooked to a pattern of “working and rushing forward” instead of “working and learning from each others’ experiences and conlusions”.

Why have these thoughts come to my mind just now? Firstly, I was just interviewed by Martin Lawn who is studying the history of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and of the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). In our discussion we could conclude that the evolution of VETNET network of European vocational education and training (VET) researchers has also been a complex process with many features. Once again I noticed that my old logbooks on the development of VETNET and ECER have been buried to the backstage of the old VETNET homepage and hardly accessible to anyone else than myself.

Another reason is the fact that I have been recently involved in several European projects and initiatives to promote professional development of VET teachers and trainers (such as the TTplus project, the European Consultation seminars and the Trainers in Europe network). Many of these have been parallel to each other and producing their ‘own’ results. Now, there is a chance to look, what kind of group picture could be composed on the basis of these – altogether. I am not suggesting that there would not be contradictions or missing pieces. Yet, there is a chance to get an overview and to discuss, how the interim results could best be used for the next phase.

Thirdly, my friends and colleagues at Pontydysgu have been considering, how to make the best use of their blogs. At the moment it is clear that Graham’s Wales-Wide-Web continues as the flaghsip and the regular bloggers are encouraged to continue. I was kindly asked to consider, if I could get myself back to regular blogging (because there is an interest to blog postings from the areas I want to cover). There was also discussion on another option (I leave it to Graham and others to announce their new ideas when the time is ripe).

So, I am looking forward to a spring season with more postings and with efforts to discuss lessons from earlier history of VET research (vis-à-vis the current phase) and the group picture of more recent activities with focus on trainers, teachers and workplace learning. In this context I try to make appropriate use of discussions in projects and networks (and on their blogs) as well.

Before I take any steps to comment current European developments in Vocational Education and Training (VET) it is worthwhile to look at theparallel developments in Higher Education (HE). During the recent weeks the German student protests on the implementation of HE reforms have made headlines. The protests have swept all over Germany:  students are occupying the main auditories and the university rectors tend to express their understanding. Also polititicians tend to sympathise with the students’ concerns.

So what is going on:

• What is the reason for these protests?
• Why do all show so much understanding?
• What kind of changes are being sought?

Obviously, the HE reform that has caused so much dissatisfaction is linked to the implementation of the Bologna Process. Paradoxically, so far the Bologna Process has made positive publicity: the idea of common degree structures and access to mobility across European Higher Education Area have been widely greeted. Yet, the implementation of Bologna Process has brought into daylight less inspiring features of students’ everyday life.

Looking at the implementation of the Bologna Process in Germany it is worthwhile to note the following changes:

• The hitherto successful single-cycle study programmes (Dipl.-Ing., Dipl.-Päd. etc.) have been chopped into Bachelor-Master structures. Often the old contents have been packed into new degree structures.
• Not all Bachelor graduates have access to Masters programmes. Therefore, the increased number of examinations serves as a selection mechnism that narrows down students’ options.
• For the traditional civil servants’ careers the Bachelor degree is not accepted as an entrance qualification. Therefore, the alleged polyvalency of Bachelor degree is not a reality.
• During the lats years the universities have complained that they are underfunded. The students experience this as tight and inflexible schedules that narrow down the freedom of choice (that is officially given in the curricula).
• The students’ possibilities to follow the pre-given schedules are narrowed down by other practical difficulties (the overcrowded lectures, queueing to seminars,  distribution of learning events to different locations, need to work during the studies, need to commute from other places to the university town).

All these issues have been taken up now. The students have made their point: something has to be done!

As I have mentioned, the public debate has shown mainly understanding and sympatthy to the students’ concerns. However, the statements that have been made by politicians, leading government officials and university rectors are not necessarily outlining a clear change agenda. In fact the discussion is moving in some kind of Bermuda triangle: No one seems to be responsible for the problems and no one seems to be in a position to introduce necessary changes. The Federal givernment (Bund) refers to the legislative power of the Federal states (Länder). The officials of the Länder refer to the realtive autonomy of the universities. the university representatives refer to the lack of resources.

It is also more striking that alongside students the discussion on the Bologna Process and of the current developments in germany has been taken up by journalists. Not many researchers have been that visible in the debate. This can be a matter of time: it is the task of the journalists to respond quickly to hot issues. For researchers it is more challenging to analyse the conflicts in which they are themselves involved as university staff members.

I myself do not wish to get deeper involved in the debate on Bologna Process (or on the German HE reform) on a general level. Surely, I have to come back to the issue with some of my project themes (European cooperation on VET teachers and trainers; The role of practice-based learning in some areas of HE). But the current protests (and the issues that have been raised) are also symptomatic for other areas of European educational policies:

• What are the side-effects of seemingly successful European policies?
• What kind of context-specific issues are linked to national (or regional) implementation of European reforms?
• What kind of creative spaces and new learning opportunities can be promoted (or narrowed down)  in the context of European reforms?

I think this is enough for the moment. I will get back to these questions with my next posts.

I started my blogging with the heading “I-Europe”. I wanted to cover discussions on European innovations in Vocational Education and Training (VET). However, I soon realised that I was trying to make an analysis on a creative period in European VET research (1995-2000) and confronting it with a less creative period after 2000.

My questions in my early blogs were of the type:

“What has happened to the European dimension/ interdisciplinarity/ innovations?” or

“What has happened to trans-national cooperation/ networks/ knowledge sharing?”

Now, looking back, I see that those were questions that are put forward by an observer or a historian. They do not bring you forward with the questions:

“How can we influence the European cooperation climate in the field of VET and of VET research?” or

“How can we make better use of knowledge sharing and knowledge development in European networks?”

These are questions that do not necessarily lead to a big picture or to an overarching change agenda. Yet, they are questions that give a role for the working and learning processes that we are going through in European cooperation. With the new heading of my blog I want to discuss this type of questions.

The new heading has also another meaning: This kind of questions have to reach the ground – the reality of vocational teaching/learning processes and the reality of working and learning contexts.

In this spirit I will try to discuss the projects with which I have been working and what challenges they raise for the new year 2010. I will also try to make some remarks on issues that are hot in the educational debate (such as the implementation of the Bologna process in German universities and Higher Education policies. And – alongside these contributions I will try to make some remarks on the European cooperation climate and how we (different actors in the field can respond to the ongoing climate change (I do believe that something like this is going on).

OK, This was my opening statement. I will come back soon with one of the above mentioned issues.