Dual training, which falls under vocational education and training, offers young people the chance to obtain high-level, practically-relevant vocational qualifications. This improves their prospects on the labour market. In addition to this, the dual training system also ensures the skills base for tomorrow. Dual training therefore plays a vital role in maintaining the innovative capacity and competitiveness of the German economy.

In order to further strengthen the dual training system in the future, various different stakeholders from the field of vocational education and training have formed the Alliance for Initial and Further Training. In the Alliance Declaration for the current term (2022–2026), the partners have agreed on shared objectives and fields of action that they wish to address.

Objectives and fields of action

The Alliance is a central political platform and a political coalition for action. The Alliance partners all work together to increase dual training’s attractiveness, quality, performance and capacity to foster integration. To this end, they draw up joint recommendations and measures, which are intended not only to boost efforts to secure the skilled labour base in Germany, but also to improve opportunities for young people to successfully participate in the world of work.

With their collaboration, the Alliance partners hope to recruit more people to enrol in vocational education and training. They want to highlight the diverse development and career opportunities offered by vocational education and training as well as raising public awareness of the different support options available. To this end, for example, they work together to coordinate their publicity work.

Who are the Alliance and its partners?

All relevant decision-makers from the field of vocational education and training have joined forces within the Alliance. In addition to the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the following entities are also involved:

• The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK)
• The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)
• The Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration
• Representatives from the Länder (including the KMK, the WMK and the ASMK; the Standing Conferences of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, the Ministers of Economic Affairs and the Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs of the Länder)
• Employer representatives (industry associations)
• Employee representatives (trade unions)
• The Federal Employment Agency

In the Alliance, all partners act together as one, whilst also introducing their own contributions and initiatives to the Alliance. For example, the BMBF has launched measures related to careers guidance as part of the Initiative for Excellence in Vocational Education and Training. The Alliance is also a core component in the Federal Government’s Skilled Labour Strategy.

Summer of Vocational Training

This can clearly be seen in the successful “Summer of Vocational Training”, which ran for the fourth time in 2024. It was launched at the beginning of May, coordinated by the BMBF and the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH). With a varied, well-balanced programme of special events at national, regional and local level, the Alliance partners provide information about vocational education and training. They bring together companies and young people and show all of them that dual training really pays off.

Brief history

The current Alliance term, which is set to last until 2026, marks the third round in the Alliance’s history. Even in its first term, which ran until 2018, the Alliance for Initial and Further Training was already able to introduce a wide range of measures to support dual training. These included expanding the number of company-based training places registered with the Federal Employment Agency as well as launching the Assisted Training (Assistierte Ausbildung) programme to support disadvantaged young people and their training providers.