In the paper approaches and results of the German pilot project programme for “Quality development and quality assurance in in-company initial vocational education and training” are described. This programme was funded and carried out nationwide from 2010 to 2014 under the oversight of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) with ten pilot projects in the fields of crafts, industry and services. In conjunction with training practice in small and medium-sized enterprises, pathways to improvement of the quality of dual vocational education and training were designed and analysed. Scientific supervision for the pilot projects was provided by the Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (f-bb) in cooperation with the Institute for Vocational Education and General Education at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT).

The main question for research and development was: How can the quality of vocational training be improved in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)? By answering this question one has to bear in mind that companies offer and improve training on a voluntary basis, even if national regulations for suppliers of initial vocational training do exist. For this reason quality development pathways were elaborated closely emerging from practice enabling a bottom-up process with the assistance of academic research support. More than 80 instruments, methods and procedures were developed and tested directly aligned to the conditions governing practice and to the possibilities for action open to the stakeholders at a local level. Those instruments are targeted at quality fields like:

• Negotiating quality objectives: Where do we want to go?
• Developing quality awareness
• Using the legal framework
• Improving cooperation among learning venues
• Qualifying teaching personnel
• Assisting in the transition to initial vocational education and training
• Improving the quality of learning
• Securing learning outcomes

Examples will be given in the paper.

At the same time a conceptual framework was developed in order to answer the question, how the quality of vocational education and training systems can be explained and influenced. Several levels play a role in this regard: the macro level (VET system level), the meso level (level of individual education and training institutions) and the micro level (level of teaching and learning processes). In the framework those levels are combined with dimensions of quality along the training process like input-, process-, output- and outcome quality in order to locate the work of the pilot projects within the framework and to identify relevant indicators for quality improvement.

The conceptual framework for quality improvement of vocational education and training will be presented and discussed in the paper.

For scientific supervision of the pilot project programme formative and summative evaluation methods were used. For summative evaluation a questionnaire was developed and used that intended to adapt the programme objectives to the horizon of different target groups involved in the project (apprentices, trainers, company managers etc.). Formative evaluation was based on methods of empowerment evaluation (Fetterman et al. 1996) which had been further developed for a German pilot project programme in vocational schools (Deitmer et al. 2004) and which were now again adapted with regard to in-company training. The concept of formative evaluation is a guided method of self-evaluation, which combines programme and project evaluation: Project representatives (n= 5-15) are asked to relate project specific goals to programme objectives and to rate (by numbers from 1-10) the project success according to those project specific goals. The subsequent guided debate between project actors about diverging ratings usually reveals the current status of the project according to project and programme objectives. This participative evaluation approach helps to develop and to accept recommendations towards the further development of the project.

All the pilot projects were evaluated by the research institutions involved in the programme and it came out that mostly the process quality of vocational training has (successfully) been influenced. However, the evaluation with the help of the above-mentioned framework also revealed some weaknesses concerning the construction of such pilot project programmes and their evaluation: Some possible effects of such programmes, e. g. improving the outcome-quality of vocational training cannot be observed during the runtime of the programme and also the transfer of results into other companies which were not involved in the programme can only be evaluated in a very rudimentary way. These weaknesses imply the involvement of other methods of research like e. g. longitudinal studies and the inclusion of transfer partners while the programme is running.

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