THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION - WEST-GERMANY

In the following article, the author examines the origins and rationale of the present West German prevocational education movement, Arbeitslehre. Parallels with Great Britain will be readily recognisable, as a debate regarding education and training unfolds with growth of youth unemployment, and industry’s plea for trainees with a greater awareness of the world or work. Critiques of both ‘utilitarian’ and ‘classical’ notions of education resulted from the high profile thus awarded education. Like TVEI, evolution of Arbeitslehre appears to have gone through three progressive stages, each aiming to further enhance traditional notions of an entitlement curriculum by providing so-called ‘new forms of teaching and learning’ to promote a greater understanding of the interrelatedness of theory and practice. However, unlike TVEI, Arbeitslehre has suffered from the highly devolved structure of power of its federal system, and thus recent attempts to gain uniformity of provision—i.e. equal access for all—have been thwarted. Unification will undoubtedly lead to an unfolding of a further phase in the development of Arbeitslehre. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.