Dual Vocational Training

The Dual Vocational Education and Training System is firmly established and a cornerstone of the German education system. This is a competency based training system that has proven results in Germany of increasing job opportunities, lowering youth unemployment and directly impacting growth of the German economy.

It is a cooperation regulated by law between mainly small and medium sized companies on one hand and publicly funded vocational schools on the other. This system combines time spent in the classroom with work at a company. Trainees in the dual system typically spend part of each week at a vocational school and the other part at a company, or they may spend longer periods at each place before alternating.

Dual training usually lasts two to three-and-a-half years. The Vocational Training Act of 1969, which was amended in 2005, introduced this close alliance between the Federal Government, the federal states (the ‘Länder’) and companies with a view to providing young people with training in nationally recognized occupations which is then documented accordingly by means of a certificate issued by a competent body, i.e. a chamber of industry and commerce or a chamber of crafts and trades. The videos below give more insight on the German Dual Vocational Training System and how to participate.