Considering as example the three VET sectors - the commercial trades, the technical trades and the nursing professions (vocations) - in the first part of the presentation we would like to introduce the structure of the German VET system. In this context we also will depict briefly the functions the vocational assessments in the German "Duales System" have to fulfil. Second the most important effects of the recommendation to establish a common framework for assessment methods in intermediate and final examinations by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education (BIBB) in 1980 will personated. Thirdly, we will present the developments and innovations which took place in the last decade in the context of practice-oriented assessment. We will show these developments as examples of assessment methods in selected vocational fields like the new ICT professions, the electronics- and metal vocations and the nursing vocations. At last, some particularities and contradictory developments in the context of practice-oriented assessment in the German VET system will be argued. But also the questions of validity, reliability and objectivity of the new assessment concepts should be picked out as important themes.