Germany's Vocational Training Act: Its function as an instrument of quality control within a tradition-based vocational training system

This article looks at the link: between the established tradition of a nation's vocational training system and the specific pattern of state or government involvement in the process of skill formation. It is based on the perception of the different features of the German and the English approach towards the qualification problem. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the Vocational Training Act submits vocational training to a certain amount of quality control. This control, however, is merely injected into existing patterns and procedures and therefore the state's function is only partly one of defining standards and conditions. It builds on specific traditions which allow a variety of agents and institutions to become involved in the process of qualifying young people for skilled occupations.