Learning from Germany

Spanish teachers of the Vocational Training Centre from the Machine- Tool Institute in Elgoibar visited in January the company Overbeck in order to inquire about the Dual Educational System in Germany.

Danobat Group and Overbeck are highly committed to the vocational training. After some years of turbulence, in 2009 a complete vocational training workshop was established in Overbeck and at the moment, there are 3 apprentices as mechatronic technician.

Anastasios Kyrgiannis, director of the Vocational Training Centre from Overbeck, arranged the visit which took place during the second week of January. The three teachers from the Machine Tool Institute from the Basque Country visited not only Overbeck, but also Rittal Company in Herborn. In addition, they went to the Chamber of Commerce from Dillenburg, where they were informed about the legal framework in Germany and other themes concerning the dual system. Finally, the teachers visited the technical school in Dillenburg, where they were kindly received.

The usual Spanish vocational training differs from the German. Particularly in the former there are more hours dedicated to theory than to practice. The Spanish vocational training lasts 2 years, in other words 2000 hours, out of them, 1600 are theoretical lessons and the rest should be completed in one enterprise.

Furthermore, the Machine Tool Institute from Elgoibar has developed a pilot project called “Ikasi eta Lan”, “learn and work”, which orientates itself towards the German Dual System. Through it the apprentices attend every day 4 hours of theoretical lessons and also 4 hours of practical lessons in one company. This pilot project has been dealing with some difficulties during its implementation because of the differences with the traditional vocational training. In order to overcome them, the teachers have collected much valuable information. 

The teachers of the Machine Tool Institute reported they were very grateful for the support given by Overbeck. Without this, they could have not examined how the Dual Educational System is applied and could have not gathered precious information for the implementation of the project.