Professional Education Between School and Practice Settings: The German Dual System as an Example

Abstract

This chapter uses the case of the dual system in Germany to derive general and exemplary conclusions for co-operation between school and practice settings in professional education. It can be shown that co-operation between two learning settings as unequal as enterprises and schools does not come by default. It needs to be organized taking into account didactical, organisational and governance dimensions. The dual system is used to illustrate how these dimensions impact vertical and horizontal co-operation on four distinguishable action levels: macro-, exo-, meso- and micro-level. Characterising schools and enterprises as incommensurable living environments is then used to shape the requirements for didactical designs, which leverage the fact that learners in the dual system cross the borders between these settings regularly. Here it is pointed out that each setting is constituted by distinct rationalities and both have a theoretical and practical dimension. If co-operation is still to be fostered, school and enterprise actors need to find a ‘higher standard’, which can be used to design sequences of instructions in the alternating settings. Therefore the learners perspective is to be considered. Finally a ladder-model of co-operation in vocational education and training is employed to systematise best practices for co-operation between school and practice settings.