D UA L E D U C AT I O N
Interest In Learning
THROUGH WORK Based on the model of Europe’s most famous and most successful dual education systems, implemented in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, Serbia was the first country in the region to adopt its Law on Dual Education in 2017, the full implementation of which began on 1st September 2019
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he development of dual education in our country has prompted a need for the formal education system to be adapted to the personnel needs of the economy. Following the completion of their education under the dual model, students can either gain employment with an employer or launch their own business, while they also have the qualifications required to continue their education. If dual education in Serbia had a tradition dating back 100-200 years, like Germany, we could boast of the fact that more than 80 per cent of the students of three-year dual education programmes find a job with the employer with whom they had their internship. Approximately 25 per cent of German interns earn the right to enrol in university, but they opt instead for an internship, while in Switzerland, for example, the dual education system includes 128 education profiles, each of which is led by a different company. Serbia is neither Germany, nor Switzerland, nor Austria, which also has a great dual education system, so it cannot boast of such impressive results, but nor are our figures negligible. EARNING BOTH AT SCHOOL AND WITH L AN EMPLOYER In the period of just five years, which is how long dual education has been in the focus of Serbia’s education system, we’ve reached a total of 54 dual educational profiles, 10,000 pupils enrolled in dual programmes, 150 schools and 900 companies engaged in the dual education system, while in the meantime an additional step has been taken, such that today three colleges and 28
For this academic year, 30 per cent of the companies that registered are new, while the offer for the dual model will also include nine new educational profiles five academies of vocational studies are implementing 26 study programmes under the dual model. By definition, secondary dual education is a model of teaching under the system of secondary vocational education and training in which the curriculum is implemented in both a school and a company, under the guidance of the employer. It thus ensures
EDUCATION / Challenges & Opportunities
that students acquire knowhow, abilities, skills and attitudes, through theoretical classes and exercises in school, but also through learning on the job in a company. “The dual education system ensures a more effective response from the education system to the needs of the economy and labour market, technological change and the need for new competencies, knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes,” say representatives of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. ISTENING CAREFULLY TO THE NEEDS L OF THE LABOUR MARKET Such an education model enables the acquiring, advancing and developing of competencies in accordance with the needs of
