AEC Sharing Series - Germany’s Dual Vocational System: A Personal Sharing

09 Jul 2018

As part of the Adult Educator’s Community (AEC) Lecture Series, PACE invited Mr Lim Chee Peng, an experienced supply chain adult educator and enterprise architecture & BPM consultant to share about his recent study trip to Germany organised by IAL (Institute for Adult Learning). The study trip included visits to prestigious organizations such as Mercedes-Benz, Deutsche Post, DHL Group and L’Oréal.

Germany’s Dual Vocational Education and Training System had powered its engineering and economic prowess to give its workers one of the highest productivity value-add in the world.  Mr Lim experienced first-hand on how workplace learning is powering Germany’s drive to Industry 4.0. He shared that the educational and training pathways are made known to German students even before they enter institutes of higher learning to continue their tertiary education. Learning through vocational training is highly sought after by German youth as the employment prospects are excellent. The system of studying while working is the foundation of education and training in Germany which is highly lauded worldwide. This system of training uses a combination of practical and theoretical training to the student which increases industry retention.

Closer to home, Singapore’s institutes of higher learning are increasingly tweaking their educational model to include extended periods of internship to prepare students to acquire the relevant skillsets to be work ready, world ready and life ready. The sharing exposed the adult educators present to the alternative educational and training pathways around the globe and gave a greater perspective of the alternative models available.