Gütersloh, 12/17/2024

Bertelsmann helps shape job profiles

Bertelsmann's decades of expertise in training young people is also of general interest: Some colleagues from the Bertelsmann vocational college were involved in the reorganization of vocational training for digital and print media designers and vocational training for industrial clerks.

Developments such as digitalization and automation are making a significant contribution to the transformation of occupational fields. Added to this are further skills in the increasingly hybrid world of work, which are playing an ever greater role in many professions. Against this backdrop, the training courses in which young people qualify for their chosen profession must be adapted time and again. Various institutions and organizations in Germany are working on this, in which Bertelsmann colleagues are also represented as experts from professional and training practice or are consulted by them in an advisory capacity. They include Gabriele Wenske, trainer at Mohn Media and also a specialist teacher at the Bertelsmann vocational college, Klaus Röttger, Senior Vice President Corporate Education and Head of Central Training at Bertelsmann, as well as Ernst-Hermann Bedey and Sabine Schaumburg, teachers at the Bertelsmann vocational college and also training coordinators. They were involved in the reorganization of the vocational training program for digital and print media designers and the vocational training program for industrial clerks.

"There were various reasons for the reorganization of training for media designers, such as increasing automation in the form of ever new software through to artificial intelligence, new products in the field of mobile solutions and the relocation of individual activities abroad, for example image processing to Asia," says Ernst Hermann Bedey, explaining the background. As a teacher representative, he took part in events in Soest, where he presented the results of a survey of training and HR managers in the field of digital and print media design.

Appointed as an expert

In January 2022, Gabriele Wenske from Mohn Media was appointed by the BIBB as a deputy federal expert on the reorganization of vocational training for digital and print media designers. "In six meetings, experts from the media industry and various federal ministries developed a new training regulation by the beginning of August of that year," she says. "At the same time, the vocational school teachers from the individual states appointed by the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs drew up a framework curriculum for the digital and print media designer training course, which came into force on August 1, 2023." The training would now be divided into four specializations, which would be taught together in the first two years. Mohn Media has opted for the "project management" specialization. The focus here is on the development of marketing and communication measures, commercial order processing as well as consulting and presentation.

Klaus Röttger and Sabine Schaumburg's commitment was to participate in the reorganization of vocational training for industrial clerks. As part of this, Sabine Schaumburg took part in a teacher training course organized by the Detmold district government on the restructuring of the "industrial clerk" training plan. "The aim was to implement new learning field content in commercial lessons, design new learning situations and develop concepts for integrating new requirements," reports Schaumburg. The innovations here also related to the opportunities and challenges of digitalization, but also to intercultural skills, project management and logistics - tasks that had not yet been part of the previous training in this form or to this extent. In this context, Klaus Röttger was active in the employer support group for the reorganization and, together with other employer representatives, evaluated the operational areas of application and training content and adapted them to new developments in operational practice and the world of work. "This support group came up with suggestions that were incorporated into the new design of the training regulations and the training framework plan," explains Röttger. The new regulations came into force on August 1 of this year - Bertelsmann has therefore been training new apprentices according to the new job description ever since.

Contribution to the further development of vocational training

Klaus Röttger is also active in an overarching advisory capacity as a permanent member of the Education Committee of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) in Berlin. The more than one hundred company and IHK representatives from all over Germany regularly deal with the entire range of topics relating to education and training at a national level. The range of topics includes strengthening initial and continuing vocational training, the digitalization of vocational training and the challenges of demographic change - always with a view to securing companies' need for skilled workers. Just recently, Röttger invited the committee to an event on the topic of "AI and its impact on education and the world of work" at the Bertelsmann representative office in Berlin.

"In-company training is a cornerstone of the German economy and of great importance for all companies in Germany - including Bertelsmann. It's not for nothing that we have been successfully training young people in our own vocational college since 1962, and since 2001 also in dual study programs," Klaus Röttger sums up. "And the great acceptance and high demand for graduates in our companies proves that we are on the right track." However, it is just as important to constantly adapt the content of the training and degree courses to the diverse developments in practice - as has recently been the case. "We are delighted to be involved in the preparations for such adjustments to training regulations," Röttger continues. "We are happy to pass on our wealth of experience in order to make an overall contribution to the further development of vocational training in Germany."