Search results

The purpose of this paper is to conduct the study in two states of India to covers the perception of students and their parents about the attractiveness of Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in India.

Three ITIs were selected each from the states Maharashtra and Haryana for data collection. Students pursuing trade fitter, electrical and beauty courses and their parents were selected. The instrument used to collect the data from students and parents was interviews with students and families.

The results show that the attractiveness of ITIs has shifted over time. The low status associated with these institutions is slowly fading away. The skills acquired at an ITI can provide the basis of successful careers. Once considered a last resort, today it is being considered as a possible career option. However, ITIs have yet to develop a better image and higher attractiveness within society for it to become an interesting option for young people and their parents when choosing educational pathways.

Some implications of this study are presented as suggestions in formulating policies to improve the image of technical education and vocational training.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the qualification measures of 12 German multi-national companies (MNCs), all of which are present in China, India and Mexico. In particular, the transfer of dual initial training practices and further training measures are investigated. It examines the impact consistent training strategies across national borders have emerged in German companies or local arrangements have developed despite identical internal influencing factors.

Because of its design, the focus is on the external factors that influence the companies’ training measures. However, an exploratory approach was followed. To pursue the research question face-to-face expert interviews were conducted with 46 training managers in 12 active companies in all 3 countries. The interviews were completely transcribed and evaluated using qualitative methods.

The analysis shows that it is not internal company factors but country-specific contextual factors that influence training measures and that companies cannot act in the same way worldwide.

The study is based on 12 MNC and only analyses the blue-collar area. Therefore, it would have to be evaluated whether a similar analysis would result from a survey of other companies in different sectors or whether the differences in terms of training and further training measures would then be even greater.

The study supports the internationalization strategies of MNC by providing first-hand empirical results concerning recruitment and training of blue colour workers on an intermediate skill level. It gives evidence on the need of national adaptation in the process of transferring training cultures from countries of origin into the host countries. More attention must, therefore, be paid to external factors when developing and implementing training measures.

The economic development in many countries includes an expansion of foreign investments. MNC provides employment and income for workers and their families. However, successful foreign investments also include sustainable recruitment and training strategies of the local workforce. The results of the study support policymakers to guide and support foreign companies to develop successful Human Resource Management strategies in the host countries.

This paper is original because due to the research design the internal factors are kept largely constant and the external influencing factors are singularly focused in detail. Therefore, this procedure makes it possible to investigate whether consistency training strategies across national borders have emerged in German companies or local arrangements have developed despite identical internal influencing factors.

The purpose of this paper is to address a gap in the comparative research literature on vocational education and training (VET) and skill formation systems. It examines the impact of international technical standardisation and regulation on the design, organisation and delivery of apprenticeships in the aeronautical and aerospace sectors in England and Germany.

The research design was informed by insights from economics, workplace and work-based learning and comparative education. Academic experts in the fields of aerospace and aeronautical standardisation and regulation, VET, human resource development and business organisation were consulted. The generic occupation of “aircraft mechanic” was selected as being the closest match for comparison. Interviews and non-participant observation in workplaces and training centres were carried out involving three companies in England and four in Germany.

Findings show that there is considerable convergence across the pedagogical approaches to apprenticeships in England and Germany related to fostering the capacity to take responsibility for the quality of one’s work, to work in and lead teams, and to respond to and work with customers. Increasing international regulation and technical standardisation underpins a shared language about learning through practice in technologically advanced workplaces.

This paper is original because it turns the lens of inquiry to workplace processes to reveal the level of convergence in training philosophies and practices in an internationally highly regulated sector. It shows how international technical standardisation and regulation is leading to pedagogical innovation. The findings have implications for VET and apprenticeship policy at the national and international level.

This paper aims to investigate the in-company training according to the technologically demanding and safety-critical feature of the aircraft industry. This study addresses to the tension between the structured and the more incidental part of in-company learning in their training and learning environment.

Against the background of concepts of workplace learning from vocational training research and concepts of the safety management system from safety research, aircraft companies from England and Germany were visited. Data from interviews with training managers and trainees as well as non-participant observations are analysed.

The findings show that workplace vocational learning in this industry is guided by different measures to design the learning environment to prevent purely incidental and informal knowledge acquisition. However, the formalisation of informal learning process leads to a high expenditure of material, personnel and time resources. The findings show that trainers and training managers working together internationally creatively manage different training systems. The training activities are designed to convey the values of safety culture like responsibility, accuracy, transparent communication and reporting. The requirements of the safety management system are also met through the training.

Challenges and tensions in the actual implementation of the training activities could not be identified. The people interviewed were selected by the companies, so there is a risk that certain perceptions are over-represented.

The results show that the safety-critical industry needs its own pedagogical approach to workplace learning, which is not based on independent work processes in the workplace. Insights can be drawn for in-company training in other safety-critical industries too. However, to enable effective in-company learning, which at the same time strengthens the safety culture of the company, many resources must be used. The companies must consider all dimensions of work from the individual level to the work structure level.

This paper discusses the tension between formal and informal learning and shows the specific design of this tension on the basis of a concrete industry for the specific needs of this industry. The results lead to the realisation that the general discussion about workplace learning must be viewed in a differentiated way depending on the industry.

The purpose of this paper is to use teaching and learning units specially devised for development of self-competencies and social competencies in the retail sector to explore how learners assess these units in relation to acceptance, quality and self-assessment of improvement in their own performance.

The study focuses on Poland, Italy and Germany, with a total of 1,020 learners undergoing initial vocational training in the retail sector taking part.

The findings point to high levels of acceptance by participants and to significant appreciation of the quality of the teaching and learning units. Learners also perceived a marked improvement in their performance after completing the units. Differences in outcomes between individual countries can be explained at least in part by the differing training framework in each country.

The approach did not enable the authors adequately to evaluate the increase in learners’ competencies: participants’ self-assessment is of only limited value for this purpose. Moreover, only three countries were involved in the study. This area in particular will require substantial further research if reliable methods for evaluating competencies are to be developed that improve on the current instruments.

The pedagogical objective of the project was to develop teaching and learning materials that would accelerate the development of self- and social competencies in the retail sector. The aim was that the material should be capable of use right across a range of European countries and be evaluated in a proper way. The findings are based on a very high number of involved students. Also the results are positive and enable teachers in VET-courses to use well tested teaching materials.

This paper aims to focus on the vocational and training behaviours of German corporations at their subsidiaries in the USA, China and India. Although all three countries are important markets for Germany, they are characterised by very different cultures, vocational education and training (VET) systems and employment systems. The transfer of the German VET system to other countries has been the topic of discussion and controversy.

In this study, the authors rely on interviews with local training experts of German subsidiaries to analyse VET activities. Their analysis is based on convergence (standardisation) versus divergence (localisation) theory borrowed from approaches in international management studies.

The findings indicate a “localisation” effect in all three nations. The similarities can be explained partially by the stronger focus on off-the-job trainings and greater preferences for academic careers.

The study is a pilot study.

The transfer of the German VET system to other countries seems to be very difficult.

Beyond this general debate, the specialist literature pays virtually no attention to the training practices of German companies abroad. The authors have tried to fill this research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the scope for action of local human resource managers, who are employed in foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs), for implementing training activities. These managers are situated in relationships to headquarters and the local environment. Related to this is the question whether MNCs contribute to the local skill base by implementing training activities or whether they exploit the existing skill formation system.

This study focusses on German subsidiaries of MNCs with headquarters in the USA and the UK, France, China and Japan. The study is based on 107 expert interviews with subsidiary managers and representatives of local stakeholder organisations, such as educational organisations, chambers, economic promotion agencies and governmental bodies in Germany.

The study reveals that headquarters introduce general schemes for training. In addition to these MNC-internal trainings, local managers use their information advantage over headquarters to implement dual training activities.

The training activities of subsidiaries are dependent on the institutional settings of the host country.

Albeit dual training activities are laborious and tie the local managers down for the medium and long term, the future need of the subsidiary for adequately skilled workforce prompts local managers’ engagement in implementing dual training activities.

Subsidiaries contribute to the local skill base and do not act in a free-rider position, at least in the German variety of capitalism.

The study deepens insights on distanced relations within and how subsidiaries generate scope for action by using this kind of relationships.

This paper aims to examine multinational companies’ (MNCs) international transfer strategies of German vocational education and training (VET) and examines the dynamics in the subsidiaries.

Methodologically, the study is based on expert interviews conducted in German headquarters. To complete the picture, the study also includes insights from expert interviews in subsidiaries in Mexico, India and China.

There is a mix of country-of-origin and geocentric strategic orientation. VET is “boiled down” and adapted in its contents, but headquarters and expats maintain the spirit of VET, i.e. its national agenda of technical hands-on competencies and pedagogical competencies. To achieve this MNCs introduce general guidelines. Convincing takes place by means of role models.

The effects in the emerging economies differ regionally; these regional differences are not the subject of this contribution.

VET transfer comprises the implementation of its core spirit which produces participatory and emancipatory dynamics.

Intercultural learning has to be sensitive to such dynamics.

The study contributes to research on international strategies of MNCs, focussing on skill development of the blue-collar study.

Collaborative robotics and autonomous driving are fairly new disciplines, still with a long way to go to achieve goals, set by the research community, manufacturers and users. For technologies like collaborative robotics and autonomous driving, which focus on closing the gap between humans and machines, the physical, psychological and emotional needs of human individuals becoming increasingly important in order to ensure effective and safe human–machine interaction. The authors' goal was to conceptualize ways to combine experience from both fields and transfer artificial intelligence knowledge from one to another. By identifying transferable meta-knowledge, the authors will increase quality of artificial intelligence applications and raise safety and contextual awareness for users and environment in both fields.

First, the authors presented autonomous driving and collaborative robotics and autonomous driving and collaborative robotics' connection to artificial intelligence. The authors continued with advantages and challenges of both fields and identified potential topics for transferrable practices. Topics were divided into three time slots according to expected research timeline.

The identified research opportunities seem manageable in the presented timeline. The authors' expectation was that autonomous driving and collaborative robotics will start moving closer in the following years and even merging in some areas like driverless and humanless transport and logistics.

The authors' findings confirm the latest trends in autonomous driving and collaborative robotics and expand them into new research and collaboration opportunities for the next few years. The authors' research proposal focuses on those that should have the most positive impact to safety, complement, optimize and evolve human capabilities and increase productivity in line with social expectations. Transferring meta-knowledge between fields will increase progress and, in some cases, cut some shortcuts in achieving the aforementioned goals.