Dec.21 st，2011，Wednesday, Snow Dual System of Germany

Christmas is coming. Wang Chenxin receives a letter from APS and her certtffcates of the administratton.She is very excited.She telephones Li Yucui and informs her of the good news at once.

“Hi！I got my certificates of APS this afternoon. I am so excited.”

“Congratulattons！”says Li Yucui.

“I was told German educatton is known through the world for its vocational education.Many Chinese education professionals went to Germany to learn more about it.”says Wang Chenxin.

“Yes, Germany vocattonal educatton is best on the earth.The cornerstone and main method of vocattonal training in Germany is the so-called‘dual system’.It is named‘dual system’because training is carried out in two places of learning：at the workplace and at vocattonal school（Berufsschule）.The training is based on a training contract between the training company and the trainees.The traineess spend three or four days a week at the company or in an intercompany training center and up to two days at vocational school.Alongside specialized study, students have general study classes such as German and Social Science.The training companies assume the costs of the on-the-job training and pay the trainee a small training allowance.Altogether there are about 350 recognized training occupattons with the majority of occupattons requiring three years of training.”

“This dual system proved to be very successful in combining practtcal and theorettcal knowledge and has for decades supplied the German economy with highly skilled workers.It should be noted though that in recent years the number of newly available trainees-or apprenticeships has steadily declined due to the overall economic slowdown and companies trying to cut costs.This has lead to an increasing number of school graduates-especially from lower secondary school-finding themselves unable to get proper job training and thus being excluded from the system.They either become jobless or struggle through life by doing unskilled and low-paid work.This problem is especially widespread in the eastern part of Germany, where many of these frustrated young jobless have unfortunately decided to turn to right-wing extremism as a means of protest.”

“A friend of mine in states told me that there is good adult educatton system there.Many people come back to study in the universittes.Some people rettre in their forttes and go back to the universittes for another degree.They start a new career with it，”said Wang Chenxi.

“In addition to general school education, vocational training and higher education, the German educational system also provides adult education, e-Learning and education for people with special needs such as disabled people or pupils with special educatton requirements，”said Li Yucui.

“Do federal states fund schools?”asked Wang Chenxin.

“Yes, they do. At least 90%of all schools and universities are funded by the federal states, the federal government or the local authorities and are therefore free of charge.Parents and students only need to pay for the textbooks and other study materials themselves.Until now it was possible to finance the system because the baby boomer generatton and strong economic growth after WW2 used to provide a continuous high tax yield.The ageing and rettrement of this generatton combined with the conttnuing low birth rate has now caused a serious lack of funds and reforms have to be introduced and are partly already on the way.For example, most universittes have now started to charge a tuitton fee of about 500 Euros per semester and the others is likely to follow suit.This is sttll very little compared with the fee in most other countries, but it was already enough to cause an outcry of indignatton among many Germans accustomed to the tradittonal carefree system，”said Li Yucui.

“If you do not mind, I want to know more about German Higher Educatton，”said Wang Chenxin.

“O. K.How about this idea, let's have a break in Germany and China.Then we went on talking，”said Li Yucui.