The dual education system in Germany - what it is and what it is eaten with
In my article I want to tell about the system of getting higher education that is becoming increasingly popular in Germany - I will discuss the so-called dual education. On Habré, I did not find any mention of this, but because the system is very interesting and practically unfamiliar for the residents of Russia and the CIS countries, I decided to write about it in detail, because in the light of recent events, emigration moods are becoming increasingly popular , some may be interested and want to try. I myself study according to such a system in the field of applied informatics, I have now completed 4 semesters, so everything written will be from personal experience.
So, what is this dual training? This is a kind of study that involves obtaining theoretical and practical knowledge at the same time. Simply put, you study and work. And, of course, you pay money for it. But first things first. In fact, there are a lot of types of dual study in Germany, and such training is often talked about in the context of obtaining secondary vocational education (Ausbildung), we will not be interested in this, because Visa to a foreigner under Ausbildung is almost impossible to obtain. We will concentrate on getting higher education.
The “duality” of training lies in the fact that all studies are divided into practical and theoretical parts, alternately replacing each other during the entire training period. The theory is classical studies at the university, which last an average of 3 months and are held directly at the university: lectures, seminars, design works, exams at the end of the semester. All this is familiar to us. The most interesting begins in the practical trimester. You practice at an enterprise with which you have a contract for training. At the same time, you are given a good opportunity to get a direct idea of ​​the work processes at the company, to gain real experience,poking your nose everywhere and participating in internal projects. The goal is to teach you to really do something.
In an ideal world, in practice, you actively apply the theoretical knowledge obtained at the university; in fact, it is not always possible to do this 100%, but, as is known, theoretical knowledge is never superfluous. The practice also lasts an average of 3 months, then it is replaced by a theory, and so on, in a circle. As a rule, this is especially common in large firms, during practical semesters you work not only in one department, but undergo several, depending on the plan of your studies.
After completing a 3-year course, you will have a bachelor's degree (B. Sc, BA, B.Eng - depending on the specialty), with 210 ECTS credits as well as some practical experience available, which will greatly facilitate your life as a new graduate: enterprise thereafter, you will not need to spend time on your "work". In addition, as a rule, firms are interested in taking you to a permanent rate immediately after graduation - otherwise why would they need to spend so much money on your training?
By the way, affecting the financial side. All studies, including the theoretical part, are paid for by the company where you work. The salary depends very much on the partner company, but, as a rule, in the field of IT it is very worthy (naturally, by student standards) and grows with the year of study. Due to the very busy schedule of studying vacations, dual students are not present as such, but there is a paid vacation that can be taken during the practical part. I have it is 30 working days per year.
Dual studies are offered by several universities in Germany; here we will discuss one of the largest and most popular dual universities with several branches in southern Germany - Duale Hochschule Baden-WĂĽrttemberg (DHBW) , and more specifically about DHBW in Mannheim, in which I, actually, I study. A complete list of specialties with a note about where they are specifically taught can be found here.
My specialty is called Angewandte Informatik (Applied Informatics) with the specialization of International Business Competence. This is what our curriculum looks like (ahtung, German!). Due to the specialization, many lectures are taught in English - his knowledge is implied initially. In addition, I can not say that some area is taught in more / less, in my opinion, there is an optimal balance of theoretical, practical and technical informatics and other disciplines.
While my specialization involves further development in the field of consulting and work in international projects, our faculty also has directions in Mainframe Computing and Betriebliches Informationsmanagement (something like information management in an enterprise). In addition, in DHBW Mannheim taught Informationstechnik - information technology (more technical direction, closer to electrical engineering) and Wirtschaftsinformatik - economic informatics, which, despite a slight advantage in the field of IT, officially belongs to the Faculty of Economics.
Also, which is generally characteristic of the whole university, in addition to the classical lecturers, we have a large number of working professionals reading, i.e. those who have a lot of practical experience, but there is no constant rate at the university. This moment should be evaluated in two ways, in my opinion, and can be compared with the lottery - the quality of the lectures and the material taught is very much dependent on the person’s personality, since Indeed, not everyone is able to pass on their knowledge. However, in any case, it is a definite plus that people share knowledge and experience in the use of technologies that are actively used in practice, and were not described in textbooks a few decades ago.
Another point that is characteristic of at least our specialty is the presence in the curriculum of a very large number of group / project work, which should develop teamwork skills. Group projects are undoubtedly present in classical universities, but not in such numbers. Over the past 4 semesters, we have done more than 10 joint projects, with the groups each time being formed in a new way, an average of 2 to 6 people in a group. Some of the projects went instead of the obligatory exam at the end of the semester, some - just as an addition to the exam.
')
By the way about the exams. The specifics of studying at DHBW naturally leaves an imprint on examinations. Due to the hard predetermined curriculum, exams provide one or two weeks at the end of the semester. During this time, it can be written from 5 exams and above, and some of them are modular, i.e. in fact, you are not writing one, but two or three exams at once one after another. Some modules are taken only at the end of the school year - in May we wrote a dual exam in applied mathematics and statistics, which we began to teach in September last year, i.e. at the beginning of the 3rd semester. There are cases when students write 3-4 exams at the end of the odd semester, but at the end of the even one you are waiting for all 10 and more. Undoubtedly, the study is very tense and some do not stand up and either leave themselves or fly out without passing the exams. Any exam can be retake once. The third, last, chance is given only once in an academic year and only in one subject, in this case the exam is taken orally. At the moment, there are 36 of the original 42 students left on our course. The situation is even sadder a year younger than us, by the end of the first year there are just over half of the students left. And this is despite the fact that there are practically no “random” students due to hard selection.This is spartaaaaaaaa !!
So, now to practice. There is no clear plan for a practical semester by the university, there are only general requirements that students should not be used to make coffee or copy unnecessary documents, but should be given tasks that correspond to the level of preparation. In general, each company decides individually what it will occupy the student depending on the current projects and interests of the student.
I work in an enterprise whose focus is not directly related to IT at all, but where are today without information technology? During my previous practices, I worked in the technical infrastructure department - server, network, telecommunications, etc. During this time, I realized that this is not exactly what I would like to do later. In the following practices I will change the department. By the way, the big plus of dual education is that during the practical semester you can try on the future field of activity and see whether it is “yours” or not, and if necessary, adjust the specialization as you like. For young green students who have little idea what is waiting for them at work, I think this is very important.
In addition, during the practice, students write reports that they later pass at the university as part of the curriculum. In general, as already described above, the practice is closely integrated into the university program.
Very often, in the presence of foreign affiliates, companies provide their students with the opportunity to conduct one of the practices abroad. At the moment I am practicing in a branch of our company in the United States, I reach my decent English level.
In general, the impression of studying is positive. It is not easy to learn, but with enough motivation and effort it is possible to get good grades.
For those who are interested, here are the most essential conditions for admission:
1. The right to higher education in Germany (Abitur)
The first item is admission to higher education in German universities. Due to the difference in the number of years in education in German and Russian schools, the mere presence of a certificate of maturity, coupled with the Unified State Examination, does not automatically equate graduates of Russian schools with German applicants. The minimum required to recognize your right to study at a university in Germany is two completed university courses. Already obtained in Russia / CIS higher education is equated, at least, to the German graduate and gives the right to study any specialty from scratch.
Of course, as elsewhere, there are some nuances and exceptions. After one completed university course, you have the right to enter the German college of pre-university training (Studienkolleg) and after studying there for a year, get admission to certain specialties - technical, economic, language, etc. d. To get into such a college, bypassing the course of the Russian university, can graduates of schools who have received a gold or silver medal.
2. Contract with DHBW partner company
The training contract is also one of the determining factors when entering DHBW. If available, enrollment in a university is a formality, and all the necessary work is carried out by the company that has entered into an agreement with you.
In general, the most important selection of future students is carried out directly by partner enterprises. Their range is very different - ranging from unknown small and medium-sized firms, known only in certain circles, and ending with the world's largest concerns such as IBM, HP, SAP, Daimler, Siemens, etc. Where they take you and whether they take you at all depends entirely on your talent and ability to submit yourself. Everybody has chances to get to large enterprises, they simply will not take it anywhere.
3. Knowledge of German at a level that allows you to study at a German university (B2-C1)
Naturally, to study in Germany, you need to know German (cap says hello). The most common certificates confirming language proficiency are TestDaf and DSH . For those who do not speak German sufficiently, there is an opportunity to study at the so-called international faculty. Right over here
and here are some examples of specialties. Perhaps in other branches of DHBW the list of such proposals is wider. Training is conducted entirely in English, plus the compulsory study of German is included in the program. There are far fewer enterprises offering such an international option of study, but they exist. And judging by what is written on their pages there, the guys from Russia and the CIS countries are already learning.
I really didn’t want to start studying at a Russian university and throwing it after some time, so I decided not to waste time and apply to the above college of pre-university training right after school, since the gold medal was available. I entered the college of the city of Heidelberg, where, having studied for a year, I received my German title. Initially, I planned to go to other universities, but, quite accidentally learning about the possibility of dual training, I decided to try my chances at the same time, at the same time to gain useful experience, after walking through interviews.
The first, and probably the most important advice that I want to share - is to submit documents in advance . For example, it is already in full swing at the beginning of training in the autumn of 2014 at medium and large firms, accepting applications from the contestants begins in mid-spring / early summer one year before the academic start and ends at the latest late late fall. The sooner you apply, the better for you.
Since I learned about dual tuition relatively late - in January of the year in which I wanted to enroll, and I simply did not have the opportunity to wait for another year, then I had a very limited choice of firms with free places for that year. However, my fighting spirit was just not to break. On the university website I found a list of companies that still had free places for this year. The relevance of this list is a separate question, but it was necessary to start somewhere. I wrote directly to some of the companies I was interested in and asked if they still had empty seats. This happens most often in the case when future students who have already signed the contract for some reason refuse the contract and the seats are released again.
In general, after the preparation of the documents, I sent about 15-20 applications. Most firms responded very quickly, followed by an invitation to a full-time tour / interview, a refusal came to some places, because there were no more empty seats, somewhere they simply did not want to invite me.
Full-time tour depending on the company is very different. Somewhere you are simply invited to a personal interview and ask you tricky questions, larger companies arrange several qualifying rounds, starting with an online test followed by an Assessment Center (AC), where you have to show yourself in all its glory and ends all (if you reach) one or more personal interviews. The complexity of this whole action depends on the size of the company.
It was easier for me to go for interviews. I was already in Germany. When submitting documents from abroad, you must either take care of obtaining a Schengen visa during interviews or negotiate an interview on Skype (not an option in the case of large corporations). I visited several interviews and AC, some were successful, some I failed safely, but the experience gained from all this is invaluable.
The main thing to start with, in my opinion, is to get rid of pessimistic thoughts on the topic “I am a foreigner with clumsy German, where I go, I initially have no chance,” etc. My German at the time of going to the interviews, despite the long-time language exam, was far from ideal, but neither potential employers nor I was embarrassed. In the end, I even found myself in a situation where I could choose from firms with whom I want to do my dual study.
In general, summing up: submit the documents as early as possible and to a large number of enterprises, somewhere you will be lucky to smile .
Classical German universities are often criticized for their dry theory and lack of practical knowledge transfer. However, everything has its pros and cons. The usual study at a German university is, in my opinion, less stressful, because you get your bachelor in three years, while you have a stable vacation, while dual students get the same theory in 1.5 years at the university. Due to this, the load during the study is several times greater than in the usual study.
Cases are not uncommon at the university, especially in the first semesters, when several hundred students sit at a lecture in a huge hall, the teacher reads his material, practically without interacting with the audience, and with so many students this is not possible. Nobody knows you by sight. In dual universities, due to the fact that small, up to 30-35 people form courses, the situation is more “school-like” and is closer, rather, to Russian universities, teachers often know you by name. They communicate more actively with the course and you are more likely to ask a question if you do not understand something.
On the other hand, classical universities offer more freedoms both in choosing a curriculum and in terms of attendance. In turn, dual education is consistently paid, after graduation, you practically have an employment contract in your pocket and there are good chances of moving up the career ladder.
Dual study is prestigious and popular in Germany, but the competition for it is consistently high. However, only recently (since 2010) foreigners have received the officially confirmed right to study at this university, previously it was required to obtain the consent of the labor exchange and a work permit. I had a long and tedious proceedings with the Office for Foreigners on this issue, in the end, my perseverance took over.
If you were planning to emigrate to study at a German university, as an option you can consider dual education, formally the status of foreign students in “ordinary” universities is no different from dual foreign students, the only thing is that by contracting with a company it will be much easier for you to resolve the issue with confirmation financial security.
I would be glad if my information will be useful to you.
Concept
So, what is this dual training? This is a kind of study that involves obtaining theoretical and practical knowledge at the same time. Simply put, you study and work. And, of course, you pay money for it. But first things first. In fact, there are a lot of types of dual study in Germany, and such training is often talked about in the context of obtaining secondary vocational education (Ausbildung), we will not be interested in this, because Visa to a foreigner under Ausbildung is almost impossible to obtain. We will concentrate on getting higher education.
The “duality” of training lies in the fact that all studies are divided into practical and theoretical parts, alternately replacing each other during the entire training period. The theory is classical studies at the university, which last an average of 3 months and are held directly at the university: lectures, seminars, design works, exams at the end of the semester. All this is familiar to us. The most interesting begins in the practical trimester. You practice at an enterprise with which you have a contract for training. At the same time, you are given a good opportunity to get a direct idea of ​​the work processes at the company, to gain real experience,
In an ideal world, in practice, you actively apply the theoretical knowledge obtained at the university; in fact, it is not always possible to do this 100%, but, as is known, theoretical knowledge is never superfluous. The practice also lasts an average of 3 months, then it is replaced by a theory, and so on, in a circle. As a rule, this is especially common in large firms, during practical semesters you work not only in one department, but undergo several, depending on the plan of your studies.
After completing a 3-year course, you will have a bachelor's degree (B. Sc, BA, B.Eng - depending on the specialty), with 210 ECTS credits as well as some practical experience available, which will greatly facilitate your life as a new graduate: enterprise thereafter, you will not need to spend time on your "work". In addition, as a rule, firms are interested in taking you to a permanent rate immediately after graduation - otherwise why would they need to spend so much money on your training?
By the way, affecting the financial side. All studies, including the theoretical part, are paid for by the company where you work. The salary depends very much on the partner company, but, as a rule, in the field of IT it is very worthy (naturally, by student standards) and grows with the year of study. Due to the very busy schedule of studying vacations, dual students are not present as such, but there is a paid vacation that can be taken during the practical part. I have it is 30 working days per year.
Study at dual university
Dual studies are offered by several universities in Germany; here we will discuss one of the largest and most popular dual universities with several branches in southern Germany - Duale Hochschule Baden-WĂĽrttemberg (DHBW) , and more specifically about DHBW in Mannheim, in which I, actually, I study. A complete list of specialties with a note about where they are specifically taught can be found here.
My specialty is called Angewandte Informatik (Applied Informatics) with the specialization of International Business Competence. This is what our curriculum looks like (ahtung, German!). Due to the specialization, many lectures are taught in English - his knowledge is implied initially. In addition, I can not say that some area is taught in more / less, in my opinion, there is an optimal balance of theoretical, practical and technical informatics and other disciplines.
While my specialization involves further development in the field of consulting and work in international projects, our faculty also has directions in Mainframe Computing and Betriebliches Informationsmanagement (something like information management in an enterprise). In addition, in DHBW Mannheim taught Informationstechnik - information technology (more technical direction, closer to electrical engineering) and Wirtschaftsinformatik - economic informatics, which, despite a slight advantage in the field of IT, officially belongs to the Faculty of Economics.
Also, which is generally characteristic of the whole university, in addition to the classical lecturers, we have a large number of working professionals reading, i.e. those who have a lot of practical experience, but there is no constant rate at the university. This moment should be evaluated in two ways, in my opinion, and can be compared with the lottery - the quality of the lectures and the material taught is very much dependent on the person’s personality, since Indeed, not everyone is able to pass on their knowledge. However, in any case, it is a definite plus that people share knowledge and experience in the use of technologies that are actively used in practice, and were not described in textbooks a few decades ago.
Another point that is characteristic of at least our specialty is the presence in the curriculum of a very large number of group / project work, which should develop teamwork skills. Group projects are undoubtedly present in classical universities, but not in such numbers. Over the past 4 semesters, we have done more than 10 joint projects, with the groups each time being formed in a new way, an average of 2 to 6 people in a group. Some of the projects went instead of the obligatory exam at the end of the semester, some - just as an addition to the exam.
')
By the way about the exams. The specifics of studying at DHBW naturally leaves an imprint on examinations. Due to the hard predetermined curriculum, exams provide one or two weeks at the end of the semester. During this time, it can be written from 5 exams and above, and some of them are modular, i.e. in fact, you are not writing one, but two or three exams at once one after another. Some modules are taken only at the end of the school year - in May we wrote a dual exam in applied mathematics and statistics, which we began to teach in September last year, i.e. at the beginning of the 3rd semester. There are cases when students write 3-4 exams at the end of the odd semester, but at the end of the even one you are waiting for all 10 and more. Undoubtedly, the study is very tense and some do not stand up and either leave themselves or fly out without passing the exams. Any exam can be retake once. The third, last, chance is given only once in an academic year and only in one subject, in this case the exam is taken orally. At the moment, there are 36 of the original 42 students left on our course. The situation is even sadder a year younger than us, by the end of the first year there are just over half of the students left. And this is despite the fact that there are practically no “random” students due to hard selection.
So, now to practice. There is no clear plan for a practical semester by the university, there are only general requirements that students should not be used to make coffee or copy unnecessary documents, but should be given tasks that correspond to the level of preparation. In general, each company decides individually what it will occupy the student depending on the current projects and interests of the student.
I work in an enterprise whose focus is not directly related to IT at all, but where are today without information technology? During my previous practices, I worked in the technical infrastructure department - server, network, telecommunications, etc. During this time, I realized that this is not exactly what I would like to do later. In the following practices I will change the department. By the way, the big plus of dual education is that during the practical semester you can try on the future field of activity and see whether it is “yours” or not, and if necessary, adjust the specialization as you like. For young green students who have little idea what is waiting for them at work, I think this is very important.
In addition, during the practice, students write reports that they later pass at the university as part of the curriculum. In general, as already described above, the practice is closely integrated into the university program.
Very often, in the presence of foreign affiliates, companies provide their students with the opportunity to conduct one of the practices abroad. At the moment I am practicing in a branch of our company in the United States, I reach my decent English level.
In general, the impression of studying is positive. It is not easy to learn, but with enough motivation and effort it is possible to get good grades.
Arrival
For those who are interested, here are the most essential conditions for admission:
1. The right to higher education in Germany (Abitur)
The first item is admission to higher education in German universities. Due to the difference in the number of years in education in German and Russian schools, the mere presence of a certificate of maturity, coupled with the Unified State Examination, does not automatically equate graduates of Russian schools with German applicants. The minimum required to recognize your right to study at a university in Germany is two completed university courses. Already obtained in Russia / CIS higher education is equated, at least, to the German graduate and gives the right to study any specialty from scratch.
Of course, as elsewhere, there are some nuances and exceptions. After one completed university course, you have the right to enter the German college of pre-university training (Studienkolleg) and after studying there for a year, get admission to certain specialties - technical, economic, language, etc. d. To get into such a college, bypassing the course of the Russian university, can graduates of schools who have received a gold or silver medal.
2. Contract with DHBW partner company
The training contract is also one of the determining factors when entering DHBW. If available, enrollment in a university is a formality, and all the necessary work is carried out by the company that has entered into an agreement with you.
In general, the most important selection of future students is carried out directly by partner enterprises. Their range is very different - ranging from unknown small and medium-sized firms, known only in certain circles, and ending with the world's largest concerns such as IBM, HP, SAP, Daimler, Siemens, etc. Where they take you and whether they take you at all depends entirely on your talent and ability to submit yourself. Everybody has chances to get to large enterprises, they simply will not take it anywhere.
3. Knowledge of German at a level that allows you to study at a German university (B2-C1)
Naturally, to study in Germany, you need to know German (cap says hello). The most common certificates confirming language proficiency are TestDaf and DSH . For those who do not speak German sufficiently, there is an opportunity to study at the so-called international faculty. Right over here
and here are some examples of specialties. Perhaps in other branches of DHBW the list of such proposals is wider. Training is conducted entirely in English, plus the compulsory study of German is included in the program. There are far fewer enterprises offering such an international option of study, but they exist. And judging by what is written on their pages there, the guys from Russia and the CIS countries are already learning.
From personal experience
I really didn’t want to start studying at a Russian university and throwing it after some time, so I decided not to waste time and apply to the above college of pre-university training right after school, since the gold medal was available. I entered the college of the city of Heidelberg, where, having studied for a year, I received my German title. Initially, I planned to go to other universities, but, quite accidentally learning about the possibility of dual training, I decided to try my chances at the same time, at the same time to gain useful experience, after walking through interviews.
The first, and probably the most important advice that I want to share - is to submit documents in advance . For example, it is already in full swing at the beginning of training in the autumn of 2014 at medium and large firms, accepting applications from the contestants begins in mid-spring / early summer one year before the academic start and ends at the latest late late fall. The sooner you apply, the better for you.
Since I learned about dual tuition relatively late - in January of the year in which I wanted to enroll, and I simply did not have the opportunity to wait for another year, then I had a very limited choice of firms with free places for that year. However, my fighting spirit was just not to break. On the university website I found a list of companies that still had free places for this year. The relevance of this list is a separate question, but it was necessary to start somewhere. I wrote directly to some of the companies I was interested in and asked if they still had empty seats. This happens most often in the case when future students who have already signed the contract for some reason refuse the contract and the seats are released again.
In general, after the preparation of the documents, I sent about 15-20 applications. Most firms responded very quickly, followed by an invitation to a full-time tour / interview, a refusal came to some places, because there were no more empty seats, somewhere they simply did not want to invite me.
Full-time tour depending on the company is very different. Somewhere you are simply invited to a personal interview and ask you tricky questions, larger companies arrange several qualifying rounds, starting with an online test followed by an Assessment Center (AC), where you have to show yourself in all its glory and ends all (if you reach) one or more personal interviews. The complexity of this whole action depends on the size of the company.
It was easier for me to go for interviews. I was already in Germany. When submitting documents from abroad, you must either take care of obtaining a Schengen visa during interviews or negotiate an interview on Skype (not an option in the case of large corporations). I visited several interviews and AC, some were successful, some I failed safely, but the experience gained from all this is invaluable.
The main thing to start with, in my opinion, is to get rid of pessimistic thoughts on the topic “I am a foreigner with clumsy German, where I go, I initially have no chance,” etc. My German at the time of going to the interviews, despite the long-time language exam, was far from ideal, but neither potential employers nor I was embarrassed. In the end, I even found myself in a situation where I could choose from firms with whom I want to do my dual study.
In general, summing up: submit the documents as early as possible and to a large number of enterprises, somewhere you will be lucky to smile .
Finally
Classical German universities are often criticized for their dry theory and lack of practical knowledge transfer. However, everything has its pros and cons. The usual study at a German university is, in my opinion, less stressful, because you get your bachelor in three years, while you have a stable vacation, while dual students get the same theory in 1.5 years at the university. Due to this, the load during the study is several times greater than in the usual study.
Cases are not uncommon at the university, especially in the first semesters, when several hundred students sit at a lecture in a huge hall, the teacher reads his material, practically without interacting with the audience, and with so many students this is not possible. Nobody knows you by sight. In dual universities, due to the fact that small, up to 30-35 people form courses, the situation is more “school-like” and is closer, rather, to Russian universities, teachers often know you by name. They communicate more actively with the course and you are more likely to ask a question if you do not understand something.
On the other hand, classical universities offer more freedoms both in choosing a curriculum and in terms of attendance. In turn, dual education is consistently paid, after graduation, you practically have an employment contract in your pocket and there are good chances of moving up the career ladder.
Dual study is prestigious and popular in Germany, but the competition for it is consistently high. However, only recently (since 2010) foreigners have received the officially confirmed right to study at this university, previously it was required to obtain the consent of the labor exchange and a work permit. I had a long and tedious proceedings with the Office for Foreigners on this issue, in the end, my perseverance took over.
If you were planning to emigrate to study at a German university, as an option you can consider dual education, formally the status of foreign students in “ordinary” universities is no different from dual foreign students, the only thing is that by contracting with a company it will be much easier for you to resolve the issue with confirmation financial security.
I would be glad if my information will be useful to you.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/187666/
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