Dual Education - New knowlegde for a new era!
Dual education has becoming more and more popular way of connecting companies and young people who are still in their educational process. This system has many beneficial aspects as provides young people to gain experience in their field of interest and be familiar whit the working process in practice.
What is the dual education system?
The dual education system is a system in which apprenticeships at a company is combined with courses in a vocational school. It is sometimes referred to as the \"German model\" due to its strong presence in Germany and Austria. However, this name is a bit misleading since it is also used in other parts of the world, including the Western Balkan, Denmark and other countries. Advocates of this system point to the relatively low (youth) unemployment in countries like Germany and Austria, where this system is implemented. They also point to the advantage of students learning under \"real-life\" conditions and argue that since the students start working for the companies already during their training, they do not risk becoming unemployed afterwards.
In Serbia, this model is implemented at the secondary level of education. Depending on the educational profile, a student can learn in a real work environment from the first year of schooling. He spends one, two or three days a week in the company, which is determined by the curriculum.
Dual education was introduced to the educational system of Serbia in 2019/2020, as an integral part of the comprehensive reform of education. German-speaking countries supported the reform, which included different types of crafts („Berufsausbildung\"). The introduction to dual education began in 2013 with different projects supported by Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. First, three educational profiles were brought into the system. Afterward, with the help of Austria in 2016, new profiles of educational profiles were introduced. Switzerland also supported this educational collaboration by adding a new profile. In the school year of 2018/2019, around 600 companies were participating in dual education, and 33 educational profiles were offered.
The term \'dual system\' can lead to misunderstandings, at least when communicating in a cross-cultural setting. Duality can relate to learning sites, for instance, but also to interwoven pedagogical processes. In the First case, \'duality\' relates to the alternation between learning in a company and at school. In the second case, the \'dual principle\' refers to the combination of theory and practice. While the adoption of a \'dual system\' along the lines of the Austrian, German or Swiss VET system depends on the existence of a whole set of cultural, political and economic conditions, the implementation of the \'dual principle\' is crucial for changing the Serbian VET system.
What reflects the significance of dual education and vocational schooling? How important are they for the individual, for students; how important for companies and how important for local communities and society as a whole?
We have the answer from the experts:
In Serbia, as well as in many other countries throughout Europe, we face a massive shift from supply-driven to demand-driven labor markets. The reasons are well-known: demography, emigration, and a long trend of preferring academic education over vocational education. All these factors constantly reduce the pool of skilled workers. To put it bluntly: head-hunters and HR departments no longer search for managers, rather technicians.
As for the question of the importance of vocational education for companies, communities and society, I would like to respond with a question: who is actually running all that? Who is producing our goods, who is welcoming us to hotels, who is repairing cars and who is capable of maintaining production systems? Society owes much to its workers, and companies that does dual knows how to contribute to their qualifications
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