Ore CIM/STW PATTERNED AFTER GERMAN VOCATIONAL MODEL From: "Bob&Barbara Tennison" To: Subject: German Apprenticeship Programs Date sent: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 22:16:24 -0800 Jeanne, Following is a verbatim account of a trip taken by a group from Oregon to Germany in 1994. I thought it my help answer some of your questions. I am also sending to the loop as I think they will find it interesting. APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS IN GERMANY by Bruce Adams OEA President (Oregon Education Association) Recently, I represented OEA as part of a delegation from Oregon that visited Lower Saxony, Germany. Our purpose was to study the German educational system, particularly the apprenticeship system. We wanted to see what we could learn that might be useful to Oregon since the German system was used as a model when Oregon created the Education Reform Act, with the components of the Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) and the Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM). Oregon legislators had previously visited Lower Saxony to establish a special state-to-state partnership, so it was natural to choose this area as a location to study the German system. Oregon's delegation included Labor Commissioner Mary Wendy Roberts, and Vern Ryles, a Portland business owner and chair of the Workforce Quality Council. The other eight delegates included five people involved in Education; a superintendent, a high school principal, a community college dean, a trainer of mechanics, and a training director for an apprenticeship program. There was also a business owner, a union representative and the director of a business and youth exchange, in addition to myself. We met with the Lord Mayor of Hanover, members of the Lower Saxony Parliament, representatives of education and apprenticeship programs, unions, chambers of commerce as well as business owners, teachers, students and apprentices. Each of us stayed with a German family. Most of us were paired with someone whose job was somewhat like our own. I stayed with the chief executive officer of the Chamber of Handicrafts. Our hosts are planning to return the favor with a visit to Oregon in the spring. ######### This is the introduction to an 8 page article published in the December/January 1994 edition of Oregon Education. So you see, the idea of "reform," school-to-work and apprenticeship programs are not original to Oregon as we (parents) have been lead to believe. Reading this article was an eye opener and alarm bells rang loudly as I had no idea that members of our legislature had traveled to Germany to study their system, much less entered into a partnership agreement. Boy would I like to see that agreement. Oh well, one more thing to track down and one more dot to connect. eh Joan? If you are interested I can key in the entire document in installments so it won't be overlong. Barbara EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE