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Boosting Germany’s Vocational Education: Five Key Suggestions
How we can drive innovations forward again and make Germany an economically successful location – DIHK position paper of May 2026
How can we secure Germany's future prosperity? Read the DIHK’s analysis and suggested reforms.
Foreword
The world is changing rapidly. Technological leaps, geopolitical shifts, and demographic changes are challenges for both the economy and society. Germany’s answer can only be a strong, innovative economy supported by robust vocational training. Without skilled professionals, there can be no competitiveness; without competitive companies, there is no future for jobs and prosperity.
Vocational education is central to our country’s ability to renew itself. It secures skilled workers, enables transformation, and creates opportunities for advancement. However, the framework is increasingly under pressure. Target groups are becoming more diverse, essential skills among school leavers are declining, and educational disruptions are becoming more frequent. For many companies, this results in growing additional tasks, often pushing them to their limits.
Companies are taking responsibility. They offer training, invest in qualifications, and are committed to the vocational future workforce, even under challenging economic conditions. This commitment is a cornerstone of our economic and social system. It is all the more critical that vocational training is given the importance it deserves in economic policy debates. After all, investing in qualifications forms the basis for innovation, productivity, and sustainable growth.
The IHK organisation is actively involved across the entire education path – from career guidance and exams to qualification and recruiting skilled professionals domestically and abroad. The five proposed actions in our paper address where companies currently face hurdles. They connect practical realities with clear political requirements for action.
We invite the federal government to adopt these proposals and, together with the states, translate them into effective frameworks. As the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), we are in close dialogue and ready to provide active support. The priority now must be to give vocational training the significance that Germany as a business location urgently needs.
Dr. Helena Melnikov, DIHK Chief Executive Officer
Five Impulses for Strengthening Vocational Education
Germany’s economic position is under greater pressure than at almost any time since the post-war period. At the same time, technological developments in areas such as digitalisation and artificial intelligence offer new opportunities for growth and competitiveness. To harness this potential, one critical factor is needed: well-qualified skilled professionals.
The dual system already sets international standards in qualification through its close integration with practical, on-the-job training. To maintain this status, new challenges must be addressed: Increasingly, businesses struggle to find trainees, while the number of young people without qualifications is rising. Burdens such as bureaucratic and ineffective measures like training levies are being imposed on companies. Instead, Germany needs bold innovations and reforms. Above all, there must be: consistent, talent-oriented career guidance, continued enhancement of the system's appeal, increased flexibility, and a reduction in bureaucracy.
The IHK organisation outlines clear paths with five key proposals for vocational education and provides specific action areas and recommendations to further develop vocational training and sustain its success as a model.
Focus on Companies and Vocational Education
German Chamber of Commerce and Industry insights emphasize the importance of equipping trainees with fundamental skills for a successful start in vocational education.
Key measures to address barriers such as language skills, affordable housing, and administrative hurdles for apprentices.
Addressing challenges like digitalisation, demographic change, and a shortage of resources in vocational schools and businesses.
Challenge
Individuals pursuing vocational qualifications vary greatly in age, background, and prior education. This necessitates flexible and tailored qualification pathways.
Goal
Experienced professionals and individuals in diverse life situations should achieve a full vocational qualification quickly and efficiently. Alternative pathways to securing skilled workers should be straightforward for companies.
Recommendations for Action
Simplify Vocational Validation
The federal government simplifies and streamlines the vocational validation process, enabling more businesses and professionals to benefit from this offering.
Existing individual funding tools from the Federal Employment Agency and Job Centers can also support the vocational validation process. The proposed validation grant complements this offering.
Standardise and Make Partial Qualifications More Practical
The partial qualification (PQ) offerings are standardised nationwide and, under certain conditions, also made available to individuals under 25 years of age. The Federal Employment Agency sponsors only measures that are based on standardised and Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)-approved PQ job sets. Additionally, the agency simplifies the funding process for companies engaging in employee qualification through partial qualifications significantly.
The potential of partial qualifications for various target groups beyond low-skilled adults is explored across departments and is jointly advanced. This includes options within the framework of skilled labour immigration or civilian vocational qualifications in collaboration with the German Armed Forces.
Challenge
While advanced vocational education opens excellent career paths, it remains less known than academic programs. Complex procedures delay the swift introduction of "Bachelor Professional" and "Master Professional." Furthermore, legal foundations for the German Qualifications Framework (DQR) as a standardised transparency tool to document equivalence and promote cross-sector mobility are missing. In the public sector, career paths are still almost exclusively based on university degrees.
Goal
Advanced vocational education should become widely visible and equally recognised nationwide, including in the public sector. Procedures for introducing new degree titles must be straightforward, quick, and reliable. A legally anchored German Qualifications Framework will provide guidance and bolster vocational continuing education as a central pillar for securing skilled labour.
Recommendations for Action
Increase Visibility and Awareness
The government strengthens communication and marketing activities promoting advanced vocational education, for example, through joint campaigns with chambers and enhancing the "Aufstiegs-BAföG" scheme.
Introduce Degree Titles Consistently and Swiftly
The degree titles "Bachelor Professional" and "Master Professional" are implemented for all corresponding IHK-certified advanced vocational qualifications.
Opening the Public Sector
The public sector opens all career paths to graduates of advanced vocational training, ensuring practical implementation of legally agreed equivalence.
Secure and Expand the Legal Basis of the DQR
The DQR receives legal standing, securing existing classifications and providing long-term planning reliability. A nationwide consistent system for recognising competencies, aimed at increasing permeability between vocational and academic education, is introduced.
Support Continuing Education Systematically
State funding instruments will support advanced vocational education objectively and nationwide across sectors.
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The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) calls for placing greater emphasis on vocational education and training as a top economic policy priority. In a recent position paper, it presents specific proposals on how to secure skilled workers, improve transitions into apprenticeships...
