The dual system of vocational education and training in Germany is well known to support the integration of young people into the labor market. Though it has its origin in manufactural and industrial work, the post-war history of the dual system demonstrates its flexibility and adaptability to technological and sectoral changes.

But how will the dual system fare following COVID-19? And what does the future of the system look like as we see an increase in the digital transformation of work?

Join us for this online lecture, where University of Bath Global Chair Professor Heike Solga will discuss these challenges, and the inequalities in educational participation after leaving general schooling in Germany. Featuring contributions from Dr Chiara Benassi (King's College London) and Tony Burke (Unite the Union).

Speaker biographies

Heike Solga is Director of the Research Unit ‘Skill Formation and Labor market’ at the WZB – Berlin Social Science Center, and Professor of Sociology at the Freie Universitaet Berlin. Her research interests are sociology of education, labor market research, and life-course research. She has recently been appointed as one of the University of Bath Global Chairs for 2020-2021.

Chiara Benassi is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at King’s College London. Previous to her appointment at King’s, she was Lecturer in HRM at Royal Holloway, University of London and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. Chiara’s research is in the area of comparative human resource management and comparative employment relations.

Tony Burke is an Assistant General Secretary of Unite the Union. He has been a full-time Union official since early 1990’s. He is President of the Confederation of Shipbuilding & Engineering Unions (CSEU), a Vice President of IndustriALL Europe and EC member of IndustriALL Global; a member of the British TUC General Council and Executive Council and is currently the TUC’s lead spokesperson on employment and union rights; a member of the Labour Party National Policy Forum and Chair of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom.