Englisch - Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Universität ...

Education Minister highlights Importance of Graduate School
Established in August 2008 by the
Faculty of Business Administration
and Economics in cooperation with
the Ministry of School and Further
Education of North Rhine-Westphalia,
the innovative Graduate School for
Competence Assessment and Develop -
ment in Vocational Education and
Train ing is an inspiring and enabling
environ ment for researchers working
in the VET field, with special emphasis
given to personalized learning as well
as com petence assessment and development.
The currently eleven participants
of the graduate program are
teachers at vocational education institutions
in the state of North Rhine-West -
phalia, who spend half their working
time attached to the Department of
Business and Human Resource Educa -
tion where they conduct VET projects
and studies in this particular field of
research.
Many of the graduates’ individual re -
search projects are concerned with specific
practical issues in VET. The approach
requires the teacher-researchers to
maintain a close link between research
and practice to ensure their work produces
prototypes, instruments and
teacher training measures that can be
upb.de/wipaed
Graduate School participants (right, from left): StR’ Maike
Brinkhus, Dipl.-Ök. Claudia Föller, Dipl.-Hdl. Christof Gockel,
Dipl.-Ök. Uwe Krakau
translated into long-term practice and
adjusted for use in various educational
settings. In this context, the School is
gradually setting up what are known
as ‘research and development arenas’,
which are longer-term partnerships
between researchers and practitioners.
They produce an ideal environment for
conducting basic research and producing
sound theoretical concepts for competence
assessment and development
in educational institutions.
The main actors in this context are the
teachers, who form research groups
to address issues that are regularly
encountered in a classroom environment.
A number of their projects are
concerned with analyzing and evaluating
teachers’ diagnostic abilities, promoting
competence development among
learners in classroom settings, and
identifying optimal frameworks for competence
development at school level.
The Graduate School is also dedicated
to promoting basic research in subjectspecific
didactics and school pedagogy.
This unique approach represents a major
step towards establishing an innovative
applied research community in the field
of business and human resource education.
Above (from left): Dipl.-Ing. Kaj Liebberger, OStR’ Margot Ohlms, Dipl.-Hdl. Birthe Tina Reich-Zies, StD Detlef Sandmann,
Dipl.-Hdl. Dipl.-Kffr. Astrid Schulte, StR Jan Hendrik Stork, Dipl.-Hdl. Ingo A. Westermilies
The special relevance of the School
and its research areas was highlighted,
amongst other events, by a conference
of experts organized in July 2011 by
the Graduate School in cooperation
with the Ministry of School and Further
Education of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The event took place at the Ministry in
Düsseldorf and was attended by vocational
college principals and education
administrators. In her opening address,
Education Minister Sylvia Löhrmann
commended the School’s work. “It is
essential that we continue to produce
new scientific insights in order to keep
improving vocational education and
training. Because personalized learning
is immensely important in a VET environment,
we are working together with
the Graduate School to conduct research
in this very area,” she said. “We remain
committed to the principle of individualized
support in VET and look forward
to a continued good partnership with
the University of Paderborn.”
Faculty of Business Administration and Economics
Graduate School for Competence Assessment and
Development in Vocational Education and Training (VET)
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