Education
Education is the central investment in our future. Everybody benefits from the return on this investment – individuals, the economy and the country as a whole. This means that we need an overarching strategy which improves the quality of education in all areas.
Only a comprehensive formation of personality and employability makes it possible for individuals to take part fully in economic, societal and cultural development. Only with well qualified individuals can new ideas be developed and quality products and services be offered which ensure the competitiveness and innovative potential of Germany as a place to do business. Education policy is also the most effective and the most sustainable social policy, because only people who are adequately prepared to face challenges in the modern economy and society are able to shape an autonomous life, manage their affairs without long-term transfer payments and make professional chances a reality.
But too much potential is still unexploited due to shortcomings in the education system: for instance, 8% of school leavers – in real numbers that means 80,000 young people a year – leave school without a diploma every year. Our country needs to make education an ongoing priority. We need an overarching strategy which improves the quality of education in all areas. We support the reforms to improve education in Germany currently under way.
Three central guiding principles
Further steps now need to be taken, following three central guiding principles:
Objectives to 2015
Based on these guiding principles, reforms must be brought forward in the individual areas of education. It is absolutely essential that objectives are agreed for the individual areas of education to the horizon 2015. These include in particular:
Business is conscious of its responsibility for education and makes its contribution. In addition to the direct commitment in terms of vocational education and training, in which companies invest around 55 billion euro a year, companies, federations and business-sponsored educational institutions are available as cooperation partners and initiators with nurseries, schools and universities. They are involved – also financially – in numerous projects which are not currently captured in statistics, in particular with e view to promoting development of very young children, sound vocational guidance for school children and employability of university graduates.
Only a comprehensive formation of personality and employability makes it possible for individuals to take part fully in economic, societal and cultural development. Only with well qualified individuals can new ideas be developed and quality products and services be offered which ensure the competitiveness and innovative potential of Germany as a place to do business. Education policy is also the most effective and the most sustainable social policy, because only people who are adequately prepared to face challenges in the modern economy and society are able to shape an autonomous life, manage their affairs without long-term transfer payments and make professional chances a reality.
But too much potential is still unexploited due to shortcomings in the education system: for instance, 8% of school leavers – in real numbers that means 80,000 young people a year – leave school without a diploma every year. Our country needs to make education an ongoing priority. We need an overarching strategy which improves the quality of education in all areas. We support the reforms to improve education in Germany currently under way.
Three central guiding principles
Further steps now need to be taken, following three central guiding principles:
- More autonomy and more competition are the key to greater quality in all areas of education. BDA and BDI call for schools and universities to be independent in matters linked to financing, administration and staffing as well as for a determined reduction of red tape and decentralisation in the field of education.
- Compartmentalisation of the various education pathways must become a thing of the past, permeability in the education system and international comparability of qualifications need to be improved. BDA and BDI are committed to the opening of universities to people with vocational education diplomas and to fair selection procedures.
- The need for skilled workers in scientific and technical professions is already placing a brake on growth and innovation. In order to ensure the quantity and quality of the next generation of people with MINT skills (mathematics, information technology, natural sciences, technology), the teaching of these subjects in schools and universities must be given priority. BDA and BDI support this through the joint initiative “MINT the future”.
Objectives to 2015
Based on these guiding principles, reforms must be brought forward in the individual areas of education. It is absolutely essential that objectives are agreed for the individual areas of education to the horizon 2015. These include in particular:
- At least half of nursery heads must have a university-level educational diploma or comparable qualifications.
- The share of school dropouts must be halved from 8% to 4%.
- The higher education starter rate must be increased from 36% to well above 40%.
- The higher education dropout rate must be reduced from 21% to 10%.
- The percentage of young people without educational qualifications must be reduced from 16% among 20-29-year-olds to 8%.
- The share of vocationally trained people without a formal right to enter higher education must be increased from just under 1% to 5% of higher education starters.
Business is conscious of its responsibility for education and makes its contribution. In addition to the direct commitment in terms of vocational education and training, in which companies invest around 55 billion euro a year, companies, federations and business-sponsored educational institutions are available as cooperation partners and initiators with nurseries, schools and universities. They are involved – also financially – in numerous projects which are not currently captured in statistics, in particular with e view to promoting development of very young children, sound vocational guidance for school children and employability of university graduates.
