Arbeiten und Lernen für An- und Ungelernte. Aktuelle arbeitsmarkt- und berufsbildungspolitische Notwendigkeit in berufspädagogischer Tradition

Abstract

’Working plus Learning" for the Low-Skilled: Persistent Challenges for Labour Market Policy, Vocational Education and Professional Pedagogy

If working and learning are combined within a supporting system, this enables an integral learning with head, heart and hand. Furthermore, it can facilitate the acquisition of vocational competencies as well as personal development. That vocational education should promote both working skills and the human character was already a central tenet in the classical theory of vocational education. As a result of structural changes in post-modern societies, too, social and individual competencies are of growing importance and have led to a renaissance of on-the-job learning opportunities. Within this important employment context, supra-functional competencies can be adequately acquired, especially by persons/workers who are not accustomed to learning. As a result of lasting discrimination against low-skilled workers, which was intensified by the so-called Hartz reforms, additional possibilities of employment and vocational training are necessary; otherwise, further social problems, such as increasing youth criminality, are to be expected.