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Learning Foreign Languages in Companies That Provide In-House Vocational Training – Exemplary Strategies

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Learning Foreign Languages in Companies That Provide In-House Vocational Training – Exemplary Strategies TOPIC PROMOTING INNOVATIONS IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING Learning foreign languages in companies that provide in-house vocational training – Exemplary strategies ̈ The importance of "Europeanizing" voca- The European Commission's Language Action Plan that was adopted in the summer of 2003 calls for, inter alia, tional training – and concomitantly the need workers to have the “opportunity to improve the language to teach foreign languages on an occupation- skills relevant to their working life".2 This issue is playing an increasingly important role at national level as well. related basis – has grown significantly in Long gone are the days when only company managers had recent years. The work programme that was to be able to operate in contexts involving a foreign lan- guage. As economic relations are becoming increasingly formulated on the basis of the Lisbon strategy internationalized, more and more employees – not only at and approved by the EU education ministers international corporations but at smaller companies as well – have to be able to understand technical texts and ma- and the European Commission back in 2002 nuals in foreign languages; correspond in a foreign langu- age with parent companies, subsidiaries and associated cites the promotion of foreign language firms in other countries; and procure important informa- learning as one of the 13 key objectives that tion from Internet pages that are often available only in English.3 European education policy is to implement by the year 2010.1 Activities aimed at further developing skilled occupations are responding to these demands by, inter alia, incorpora- ting foreign language skills into the training regulations for the respective occupation. But how are the necessary skills to be learned when the additional time this requires is not available – in either the day-to-day routine at the company providing practical training or in the classroom at vocational school? The following sections outline various strategies that are already being practiced with success to- day. Transnational practice firms and learning groups Many companies have already used the practice firm con- cept successfully as part of their training activities. Thanks ULRIKE SCHRÖDER to the responsibility assigned them, trainees acquire im- Research Associate in the "National Agency" portant basic skills such as autonomy, organizational abi- Section at BIBB lity and negotiating skill. Some firms are already opera- ting on a cross-company basis in this connection and are using the means offered by new media such as e-mail, In- BWP Special Edition 2005 15 ternet-based discussion fora The European Commission already provides financial sup- Useful links and complex virtual learn- port – through the Leonardo da Vinci programme – for www.na-bibb.de (National Agency ing environments. This also placements abroad or company exchanges lasting up to 12 Education for Europe, at BIBB) expands trainees' “web months (a maximum of six weeks for trainers). Some http://europa.eu.int/comm/educa- skills" (BORCH/WORDELMANN) 30,000 employees in German companies have benefited tion/language/label/index.cfm more or less as a side-effect. from these grants in the years since 2000. In this case, par- (European Label database) However very few compa- ticipants acquire foreign language competency – usually www.zuef.de (Deutscher Übungsfir- nies pursue such activities following a preparatory language course – in a situation menring = German Practice Firm Circle) on an international level – in which specific activities in actual working situations are www.wege-ins-ausland.de (central by, for example, having the used as a learning platform, a method that noticeably im- website for funding sources for mobili- practice firm handle orders proves learning outcomes. The experience of living and ty activities) from foreign business part- working abroad also helps individuals overcome any inhi- http://Leonardo.cec.eu.int/pdb/ ners or bringing their prac- bitions about functioning in a foreign language. Participa- (European Compendium & Products tice firm together with a si- ting companies can also benefit from mobility activities in Database) milar group in another a number of ways. The skills that their employees acquire http://Leonardo.cec.eu.int/psd/ country. In those cases in other countries make it easier to expand their business (European Partner Search Database) where this does happen, par- contacts to international level and the “neutral" view that www.Leonardodavinci-projekte.org ticipants see a marked im- foreign colleagues have often leads to improvements in (German-Austrian project and product provement not only in the one's own internal processes. And finally, involvement in database) skills mentioned above but European-level education activities enhances a company's www.regiokom.de/nw_grenzregi- also in their foreign langu- image. on/index.htm (Netzwerk Grenzregion age skills and intercultural – Border Region Network) knowledge. The project databases for the EU's individual education www.Leonardo.th.schule.de/ (BIL- programmes contain a wide variety of examples for activi- VOC project) Vocational schools are mak- ties in the mobility field. They also help firms establish ing increasing use of the po- contact with partner companies and inform them about tential that cross-(language-)border collaboration offers. learning materials that are available for different target However many companies that provide in-house vocatio- languages and sectors. nal training are still hesitant to take the leap – despite the fact that it would be possible in some cases to obtain EU funding (as a Comenius language project). Cross-border training cooperation The EU database of projects that have been awarded the Collaborative transnational training activities constitute an European Language Seal offers various examples of learn- intensification of “classic" mobility measures, so to speak. ing groups that have been organized on a cross-border ba- In this case, firms from several countries agree on set train- sis. In the area of practice firms, the homepage of the ing segments that are to be completed in different coun- Deutscher Übungsfirmenring (German Practice Firm Circle) tries. The respective national experience with collaborative offers general information on practice firms, assistance and training can be incorporated here. It must however be re- a link to the European network of central administrative membered that training structures and practice vary from offices for practice firms. country to country and the German situation cannot always be directly applied to other countries. Compared to conventional measures, this strategy offers the advantage that valuable training time is not “lost" as a result of stays Cross-border mobility abroad. And thanks to the longer-term and more intensive Stays abroad during or after vocational training are the collaboration, a marked improvement in participants' for- best means for acquiring not only foreign language com- eign language skills and intercultural knowledge can be ex- petency but also a knowledge of the work cultures in other pected – along with the above mentioned benefits for their countries. At national level, the draft bill to reform voca- companies. For companies located near a national border, tional training in Germany that was submitted in the such activities involve comparatively little cost or effort. spring of 2004 (Berufsbildungsreformgesetz – BerBiRefG) Suggestions and examples can be found in, for example, contains provisions that would make it considerably easier the Netzwerk Grenzregion (Border Region Network) data- to complete training segments abroad in the future.4 The base that was set up as part of the Federal Ministry of European Commission is also planning to increase its ex- Education and Research's RegioKompetenzAusbildung penditure on the promotion of mobility substantially, start- campaign (“regiokom" campaign to build skills in particu- ing in 2007. lar regions) which is supervised by the Federal Institute for 16 BWP Special Edition 2005 Vocational Education and Training (“BIBB"). In addition, transnational collaborative training is currently a focal area for Germany in connection with the Leonardo mobi- lity programme. Generally speaking, in all these activities it is advisable to Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, Wolfgang Gerteis, Torsten Holmer, Helmut avoid using only the “hub" language English for cross- W. Jung (Ed.) border contacts. It is impossible to imagine the business E-Learning Services in the Crossfire: Pedagogy, Economy sector without English as its lingua franca. In this area and Technology English fulfils an important function. However, a basic E-learning is undergoing significant knowledge of a business partner's technical and day-to- changes. Because it is caught in the cross- fire of pedagogy, economy and techno- day language brings unquestionable benefits. On the one logy, sustainable economic concepts have hand, this knowledge increases understanding of an unfa- to be developed. This book discusses approaches that are based on experi- miliar (work) culture. On the other hand, it has a positive ences derived from the research project “L – Life-Long Learning”. impact on building trust between the parties involved. 3 The L3 project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Order at carried out under the responsibility of W. Bertelsmann Verlag the Federal Institute for Vocational Edu- GmbH & Co. KG cation and Training. P.O.Box 100633
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