Application Series 22

INSIGHT INTO VOCATIONAL TRAINING

'With 1.6 million apprentices and compulsory annual Federal statistics to produce, we need a system like SIR to keep us going' said Rudolf Werner of the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB), Germany.

Background

SIR is used by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training in Berlin (BIBB) to organise and analyse statistics on the German System of Vocational Training. The Institute, belonging to Federal Ministry for Education and Science, has the task of developing training regulations and providing research and information on vocational training, including the analysis of the Federal Government's annual Vocational Training Report. Rudolf Werner, of the BIBB, described to SIR the usefulness of SIR software for the proper and timely collection and analysis of their complex data.

Sources of the data vary from the Chambers of Commerce, Industry to Handicraft. All sources provide their data to the Federal Statistics Bureau from which the BIBB receives its data. Compulsory federal laws, which may change over time, determine the structure of the statistics.

Structure of the data

'Data are collected for every occupation which uses the dual training system (learning in Companies and Schools)' Rudolf told SIR. The SIR database provides information on over 600 occupations with 370 currently state-recognised. 'Variables we collect include the number of apprentices, which ones learn a profession, their sex, their age, from which schools they come, their participation in examinations, their nationality, whether they resolve their training contract, make a new one and so on'. There are about 60 variables collected.

The database is longitudinal with data usually going back to the mid sixties, some variables go back as far as 1950.

Types of occupation are defined, such as metal, construction, services and so on. Information on all cases of a particular type of occupation can be aggregated in dummy cases. Often analysis is performed on the aggregated dummy cases rather than the original data.

The current geographical structure of the Federal Republic consists of 16 regions or "Lands". 'Prior to 1990 there were 11 regions, and these must also be recorded in the SIR database' Rudolf explained. Other regions such as regions of the south are also recorded. All data are also sorted by sectors such as industry, commerce, handicraft, agriculture and so on.

The database uses the official classification of occupations of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, which, along with some extensions, forms the 8 digit key for the SIR-Databases.

'With this key it is possible to compare the data with other statistical collections, such as unemployment' Rudolf explained. 'These are also indexed on the official classification of occupations and also stored in a SIR database. For example it is possible to calculate the chances of trained people getting a job, or to find occupations with a lack of trainees.'

The problems

The main problem with these longitudinal data is that definitions and regulations are continually changing over time. So much programming effort is necessary to get comparable data from the raw material.

Rudolf said 'In most cases we cannot use the material as it is. Many computations and transformations must be made. Often it is necessary to estimate missing values or to correct the underlying definition by making special computations. Therefore PQL and the handling of missing values are very important features for us. They provide a quick and easy way, to handle the data. The documentation effort is low, since many parts of the programs are self- explanatory.'

Presentation of the data with Postscript

A main task is to give information in a short and quick way for the most important aspects of a selected occupation. So a system has been developed which prints a few pages for the selected occupation by typing just the number of that occupation. This sheet contains the main information of the number of apprentices, their regional distribution, from which schools they come, their success in examinations, their nationality and so on.

'There is a frame of 10,000 sheets of this sort which can be produced. But we don't publish these sheets; they are written by a SIR report just for specific needs of a user. We plan to make this information available on CD-ROM and on an Internet-Server' Rudolf stated. The sheets are revised each year with new data. In addition numerous tables are produced.

'For these reports we use Postscript' Rudolf told SIR. 'The size of the fonts can be exactly set to fit the information on a line, a page and so on. By using different fonts the main points can be underlined. It is also possible, to embed small Postscript Graphics.'

The necessary Postscript statements (anchors) are written in the SIR-Report. A self-written Postscript driver then executes these statements on the printer.

Many Platforms since 1979

'We have used SIR since 1979.' Rudolf said. 'The list of platforms we have used is long' (Siemens BS2000, DEC-VMS, DEC-VMS-Alpha, Windows). 'The portability of SIR and its restructuring features made this data collection and analysis task possible'.

For more information on the use of SIR with the analysis of vocational training systems contact:

Rudolf Werner
Bundesinstitut fuer Berufsbildung
Fehrbelliner Platz 3
D 10702 Berlin Germany

Back Sir Home