A basis for core qualifications in business and administrative occupations? Similarities and differences in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Author(s):

Franz Kaiser(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 10 B, VET and the World of Business

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-04

15:30-17:00

Room:

B027 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Lázaro Moreno Herrera

Contribution

Due to the increasing number of business and administrative occupations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and to demographic developments, a discussion has emerged about how many different occupations and training regulations are needed in the field, However, we have no empirically based knowledge of the relevant qualifications in those occupations. We only have studies in special fields and branches like finance sector, sale-sector, dialog marketing and others. A big four year project at the federal institute of VET in Germany (BIBB) had a closer look to answer the following questions :

Have the business and administrative occupations a shared historical tradition?
What are the similarities and the differences between the occupations?
Do commercial employees have a common traditional mentality?
Are there similarities between the occupations in German-speaking countries?
What makes the difference of qualifications between the level of apprenticeship (EQR 4) and further training regulations (EQF 6)?
Are there references on codes of conduct and values for ethic and moral issues and sustainable development in the regulations?
How can we group occupations and develop core qualifications?

Looking at traditional business management models, economic theories and new approaches in the services economy the special function of business employees can be found and some similarities of the qualification requirements can be found. The actual training regulations in the dual system in the countries are a useful illustration of the skills that are needed in specialized work situations in that field because they are developed together with appropriate operational experts and sometimes in combination with qualification research.

The contribution will show the methodological design of the project, the main findings and following steps that can be made

Method

To find the similarities and differences of these occupations, we used a broad methodological approach during the four-year project. 1. This approach included a detailed qualitative analysis of all the training regulations for the work based learning in the companies and the curricula for the training part in schools. We used the concept of Mayring for that content analysis and developed a codetree with over 80 different codes and main sections that represent the similarities and differences in the content of the about 50 training regulations in Germany and over 30 continuing training regualtions. The intercoder reliability was proofed. 2. The findings of a special historical study, that documents the history of th business and administrative occupations from the midleage merchants up to the end of the 19th century shows the similarities to the actual qualifications needs and the development of the VET-System for those qualifications in Germany. At the same time a sociological approach was made to gather the knowledge of industrial sociology around the business employees and their special mentality and actual trends in workorganisation. 3. A comparative study between German-speaking countries proofed the codetree that has been used and brought insights in different ways to describe the need in training regulations and lot of similarities in the content of the training regulations. 4. At least a survey of 2000 employees in combination to the Labour Force Survey of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB) has taken place to assure the quality of the results.

Expected Outcomes

What our project revealed is that the similarities between these occupations greatly outweigh the differences, with controlling, accounting and commercial management, as well as processing information and communication with clients, being common to all. On the other hand, though, a detailed analysis also showed a number of differences, such as the particular mentalities and competences in the specialized vocational branches. Based on the similarities between qualifications and the findings of the comparative study, we suggest developing key curricula for all business and administrative occupations. In case of the continuing training regulations we have an actual project that evaluates the findings together with social partners and business experts. These curricula then can be a part of all training regulations in the future and standardize the outcome. This would give qualified skilled workers more opportunities in the labor market and help to recognize the outcome of VET-based training for university degrees.

References

Brötz, R.; Schapfel-Kaiser, F (edit).:Anforderungen an kaufmännisch-betriebswirtschaftliche Berufe aus berufspädagogischer und soziologischer Sicht. Bonn 2009 Brötz, R.; Schapfel-Kaiser, F.: Gemeinsamkeiten in kaufmännischen Ausbildungsberufen ermitteln. Zwischenergebnisse einer computergestützten Dokumentenanalyse. In: Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis 39 (2010) 4, S. 26-30 Kaiser, F. :Dienstleistungskunst und kaufmännische Berufsbilder. In: Munz u.a.: Die Kunst der guten Dienstleitung. Bielefeld 2012, S 221-235. Kaiser, F.: Was kennzeichnet Kaufleute? – Ihr berufliches Denken und Handeln aus historischer, soziologischer und ordnungspolitischer Perspektive. In: Faßhauer, U.; Fürstenau, B.; Wuttke, E. (Hrsg.): Berufs- und wirtschaftspädagogische Analysen. Opladen 2012, S.165-177 Annen, S.; Tiemann, M.: Similarities and differences between commercial and business service occupations – theoretical concepts and empirical results. Paper in proceedings of the Canada International Conference on Education 2013 Kaiser, F.: Branch and task specific vocational education and training or broadly based skills profiles for commercial employees? Different approaches to training in commercial and business management occupations in Switzerland, Sweden and German. In: Nordic journal of VET, Vol 3 2014 Brötz, R.; Kaiser, F.: Innenansichten und Perspektiven der kaufmännischen Berufsfamilie. In: WSI-Mitteilungen Schwerpunktheft „Berufliche Facharbeit“ 1/2014, p. 34-42

Author Information

Franz Kaiser (presenting / submitting)

Federal institute for vocational training (BIBB)

Section 4.2 Commercial / Business Service Occupations

Bonn

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