Chair of Vocational and Industrial Education

Head Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Karin Büchter

The chair of Vocational and Industrial Education’sresearch and teaching activities focus on pedagogical issues in all areas of vocational education, with special emphasis on the company as a place of learning: vocational orientation, vocational preparation, vocational training and vocational-in-company continuing education. The starting point of any discussion are theoretical approaches and empirical results on processes of vocational education of young people and adults. Questions of interest include ways to promote individual inclinations and interests, to support their professional and social opportunities, and to enable them to participate in shaping the world of work and society. Since the achievement of these goals must not be understood merely as a pedagogical task, the chair is also concerned with questions about the historical emergence and development of current characteristics of vocational education and training, with positions and interests of various actors in vocational education and training politics, , with power constellations, negotiations, establishment and interpretations of order and control of vocational education and training at the intersection of education, employment, labor market, social, economic and EU policy.

Focal points are:

  • History of vocational education/in-company training in the 20th century
  • Vocational education and training in the field of tension between education and employment system
  • Order and governance of vocational education and training
  • Actors, interests, power constellations
  • Quality development in in-company training