Abstract
Structure and development of the German system of vocational education are based on the category of occupation which means that occupation can be the basis for the organization of learning and for its curriculum.
But occupation is no longer such a core-aspect. New developments of labour organization make old occupations obsolete. European developments create new certificates of vocational training and the changes of the labour market demand flexibility in qualification profiles.
Already in the past the fiction of occupation made the training of the disabled difficult because of its incapability for change.
Are there possibilities to reform the system by creating a new core-aspect replacing occupation? Is the dual system open for modularisation which could increase the possibility for vocational integration of the disabled?
1. Occupation and Occupationalism
2. Vocational Training and Employment
3. Trends against occupationalism
4. The Weaknes of the Dual System in Training Disabled and Disadvantaged Young People
5. The Importance of work
6. Theoretical Approaches to close the Gap between Situation and Imagination
7. Conclusion
1. Occupation and Occupationalism
Essential categories of vocational education in Germany are occupation and occupationalism. Since the times of guildes and still continuing work organisation is based on occupations and occupationalism. These categories are taken as describing principles as well for work organisation as for biographies. That causes certain structures and consequences for the organisation of vocational training.
First shall be discussed, what is the meaning of occupation and occuptionalism, are they still structuring principles of the work organisation and of vocational education and does the organisation of work still show aspects of occupationalism?
Sloane et. al. are using a very pragmatic access to the category of occupation. They have analysed job offers in newspapers and they found out, that there are two different meanings in the context of occupation. In the first meaning occupations are describing positions or functions in the working process. They remark that these concepts are not exact and that there are more than 30.000 concepts with increasing tendency. As examples they name representative or marketing manager. The second meaning gives concepts based on courses or on vocational education courses. As examples they remark occupations like wood worker, mason, or engineer. In the second group they again discriminate occupations based on courses at schools, vocational schools and colleges or universities against occupations based on courses in the dual system: recognized trades or occupations. Concerning to the hierarchical position of the educational institutions there are also hierachical aspects between the occupations. But they are not of interest in this context.
They distinguish between occupational concepts concerning to the possibilities of employment on one side and occupational concepts concerning to educational or vocational education courses.
Another group of educationalists, Sackmann and Rasztar, see 6 attributes combined with occupation:
1. It means specialisation within the division of labour.
2. An occupation means a bundle of qualifications learned during (vocational) courses.
3. Occupations qualify for special activities.
4. Occupation means to have a holistic competence as well in theoretical as in practical aspects of the work, so that changes in activities and qualifications can be managed.
5. Work done in occupations has evidence for the society and gives a place in society for the worker.
6. To have an occupation has got an emphatical aspect for the individual (Sackmann/Rasztar 1998).
Every of these six attributes is to be seen in the context of specific knowledges, functions or other aspects of social and work organisation. So attribute 6. is of influence for sozialisation and identity, while attribute 5 promotes the development of the hierachical structure of society.
Sackmann/Rasztar report that between 1979 and 1992 the rate of young people without certification of a (vocational) course decreased from 30 to 16 % (p. 27). That means there are less people without occupation or occupationalism is increasing. This interpretation does not consider, if the trained are working in their learned occupations after finishing training.
2. Vocational Training and Employment
Empirical studies show large differences in the employment situation concerning the relationship between the once learned occupation and the functions practised. Kühn and Zinn analysed the employment of young people 1/2 year, 1 year, 11/2 year, 2 years, 21/2 years, 3 years, 31/2 year and 4 years after the examination. In their study they had a look on 6 occupations/trades. Two of these are occupations/trades which are mainly chosen by women: hairdresser and clerical worker, two others are mainly chosen by men: mechanical fitter and car mechanic. The other two are chosen by women and men as well.: banking personell and sales person (p. 57).
They found out, that there are two types of occupations/trades. In one group there is a high stabile situation in employment. Even after four years more than 70 % of the sales persons is still working as sales persons. And more than 80 % of the clerical workers are still working as clerical workers.
In the employment of the four other occupations/trades there is one common trend: the employment close to the vocational education only has a rate of about 50 %. But we again have two different trends. While car mechanics and hairdressers changed the branch, banking personell and mechanical fitters returned to the educational system and started to study at universities or "Fachhochschulen" (colleges). So we can see there are occupations with high biographical stability and those with high instability. Within the last group there are again two possibilities. In one group we have horizontal changes within the hierachical structure of work, it are the hairdressers and the car mechanics, one occupation mainly chosen by women and one occupation mainly chosen by men. In the other group we have vertical changes. These occupations are bank personell and mechanical fitters, one occupation chosen be men and women and the other occupation mainly chosen by men. It would be of interest if it are women or men who try the vertical change.
Among other studies Born pointed out the the importance of occupations/trades for the phases of women´s biographies (1998). One of the results of her study was to show the kind of employment of women 30 years after vocational education. She analysed a group of women born in 1930. All of them trained in occupations which are mainly chosen by women and which are on the hierarchical step of skilled workers or craftsmen. All of the women are married.
The occupations are nurses, sales-women, hairdressers, tailoresses, and clerical workers. In this succession the percentage of woman working in their old occupation was 0 %, 26,5 %, 11,1 %, 11,1 %, and 50 %. Concerning the situation of clerical workers this result verifies the findings of Kühn and Zinn: there is a high biographical stability in the lifes and the employment of clerical workers. The results for the group of sales-women and that of hairdressers is comparable in both studies. Remarkable is that tailoresses again are in their occupation (25,9 %), after 20 years of employment it have been only 16,7 %.
Also remarkable is the increasing percentage of women with insignificant jobs among the sales-women, the hairdressers, the tailoresses, and also but less distinct the clerical workers. Another development is shown by the employment biography of the nurses. The percentage of those who work in the learned profession did decrease very quickly towards 0 %. That corresponds with a remarkable percentage of women who work in other occupations (20 years after the examination about two thirds: 66,7 %), but during the last 10 years the percentage of this group decreases to 16,7 %. At the same time the group of nurses working in insignificant jobs increases to 83,3 %.
So even if the part of the working force which stayed in that occupation or trade or even in that branch where it got its training is rather small, the occupation is very important for movements on the hierarchy of employment. And of course women more often are the loosers in this development.
Vocational training not only has a function for qualification, allocation and selection but it also has a function for the integration of young people into society and for the forming of personal identy (Lipsmeier 1998 p. 491 f). In Germany vocational education gives the license for the entry into the labour market, it can mean the start for a career going upwards as well as for a career going downwards and it still means integration and socialisation. Therefore social sciences as well as pedagogics and vocational pedagogics stick to the construct of occupationalism.
3. Trends against occupationalism
But simultaneously with the development of the dual system of vocational education we had to recognize that there was a trend towards devaluation of vocational training. In industries the number of untrained or of those not working in the learned occupation increases. With the increasing unemployment during the last twenty years there was a change in vocational training policy and in the paradigm of vocational training and education. No longer the specific knowledges are in the centre of dicussion but concepts of extrafunctional qualifications, key qualifications, flexibility, mobility and compensation.
Another trend is caused by the unification of the European Union. The German dual system is unic (exept in Austria and Switzerland), it is difficult to classify occupations/trades produced by that system within the comparable niveaus of classification. And though there are a lot of elements of modularising in the dual system there is a considerable inertia against the European aim of vocational education policy: modularisation.
4. The Weaknes of the Dual System in Training Disabled and Disadvantaged Young People
Irrespective of the discussion caused by the trends within the European Union there is an old demand in the context of vocational training for the disabled and for disadvantaged young people to certificate the individual performance or special qualifications, learned by those persons, qualifications, which are part of an occupation but do not form a vocational course. The same demand is claimed in the context of drop outs, as their fall mostly is especially deep.
Even if the Federal Institut for Vocational Education affirms that the training of the disadvantaged is one of the strong points of the dual system (Pütz 1993), the weakness of the system concerning to organsational sociology can be proved at this matter. Referring to the types developed by Mintzberg (1979) and used by Skrtic (1991) and van Onna & van der Krogt (1992) we can differentiate between machine burocracy, professional burocracy, and adhocracy. The dual system than is organized as machine burocracy and the teacher in the vocational school as well as the trainer in the firm refers to the type of loosely coupled workers.
If there is arising a new problem, the dual system or the vocational schools or the firms react by adding a new programm (a new subject or new contents) to the course or even by recruiting specialists for the new problems (like school psychologists or social workers or teacher for new subjects etc.). By reacting in that way fundamental reforms are not necessary and the organisations exist rather independently against dynamic developments in the environment. And by using such strategies they are rather successful (Skrtic 1991).
Therefore the system of vocational education in Germany constructed courses and institutions like the Berufsvorbereitungsjahr (vocational preparation year), the Berufsgrundbildungsjahr (vocational fundamental course), das Benachteiligtenprogramm (the scheme for disadvantaged), and special institutions for the vocational education of the disabled like Berufsbildungswerke (educational colleges for young disabled), Berufsförderungswerke (educational colleges for adult disabled).
The existence of those courses and institutions proves that the dual system has got essentially problems with the training of disabled and disadvantaged.
The high flexible modularised British system seems to integrate young disabled and disadvantaged into work and into society better, and that is caused by modularisation.
5. The Importance of work
In May 1999 in Germany 280 000 young people younger than 25 were unemployed. The rate was about 11 % higher than in 1995. Till 1998 this rate increased, for the first time it decreased in the spring of 1999. Unemployment is related to all social groups, but the rate among young people with handicap or living in disadvantaging conditions is higher than the rate of other groups. After compulsary education they won´t get an apprenticeship or a place in another form of vocational education. Therefore their chance to get a job decreases.
In the future the situation will get worse because of the increasing rate of automation and because of globalization. Another reason is caused by the stabilization of the pension system. One of the elements of stabilization is to let the people work longer. And every working senior minimizes the chances of the young people.
Still work is of high importance for the individuum and for the society, especially for one´s reputation. On the other hand unemployment still seems to be a danger and causes mental deseases and social isolation. To work is still the basis for the capability to exist (Beck 1986 p. 220). And it gives five categories of life events:
1. Organized work has got a time structure, therefore it it structurizing the dailly life of the working.
2. Work widenth the social horizon.
3. By working as part in an organization based on division of labour everyone´s work is work for the society. Work gives a social existance to the working.
4. Work gives reputation and identity to the working.
5. Organized work forces to activity (Jahoda 1985).
That means: "The personality of the adult man develops by working and by coming to an understanding with working (Ulich/Weidig 1987 p. 30).
To work promotes:
- the cognitive competence,
- the social competence,
- self-esteem and
- motivation (Ulich & Weidig 1987 p. 30).
6. Theoretical Approaches to close the Gap between Situation and Imagination
Some thinkers tried to create a new culture of "to learn, not to work" or "to learn to organize the leisure time". The attempt of Karl Otto Hondrich, a German sociologist is to be seen in this context. He tries to work out the functionality of unemployment. Some of his thesis´ are:
Hondrich names seven more reasons for the necessity of unemployment. They all sound logical and plausible. That he is aware of his cynicism is shown by his attempt to excuse before giving those reasons for unemployment. B
ut isn´t it comparably cynical, when Niklas Luhmann says "In stratified societies the regulation of inclusion will be arranged by social stratification. Man will find his status in that social class one belongs to." (Luhmann 1997 p. 622) He describes the social progress: "while in simple tribal societies in the case of exclusion contact was ended by execution or by separation or by banishing, in European cultures with the formation of towns and peer regimes this changed. The difference between inclusion and exclusion is constructed within society. (Luhmann 1997 p. 623)
There is only one possible interpretation. "There is no exclusion in our society". This interpretation is confirmed by the sentence: "Exclusion integrates stronger than inclusion!" "So the lower classes are more integrated than higher classes."(Luhmann 1997 p. 623)
Will that be a help for disabled and disadvantaged?
7. Conclusion
Sociological and pedagogical theory doesn´t give a help to integrate disadvantaged groups into society. So we have to continue pragmatical work to integrate disabled and disadvantaged into work and into society.
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