Decisive for the situation of VET students during the corona crisis in Germany is the dual VET system. Vocational education and training only partly takes place in VET schools. The practical training takes place in companies and the VET students get paid for working there. All schools in Germany are closed right now, including the VET schools.

Therefore, VET students are solely in their companies now. If the company is still able to work depends on the sector. The craft businesses are working, since they are often working in small teams. Especially important are the VET students in the health and social sector (e.g. child care workers, nurses, etc.), which can be of additional help in system-relevant institutions like children’s homes, care homes, hospitals, etc.

The German Trade Union Youth published important information for VET students regarding the current situation and what rights they have in terms of their education (e.g. exams, short-time working, quarantine of the company, etc.): jugend.dgb.de.

The VET schools are asked to digitize their materials and give tasks to the VET students, which they can either do at their company or at home. Many VET teachers send materials and tasks by e-mail. The VET training centre of the Leipzig public transport company provided their VET students with Microsoft Teams accounts for team chats, lessons and video conferences and uses Sharepoint to share data, documents, materials, etc. In addition, they use the offer of the company Christiani, a provider of technical education, who decided to open their online courses for VET students in electrical engineering and metal technology. Until the end of April VET students can temporarily use the full versions for free and learn basics in both fields: lernen.cristiani-digital.de.

This is an exception, since many online offers and trainings are intended for students and teachers of elementary or grammar schools. The German platform for education provides a good overview on these digital tools:
www.bildungsserver.de.