In an effort to empirically analyze Germany's educational
landscape, a group of independent scientists regularly publishes a
report on education in Germany. This so called 'Bildungsbericht' is
published by the German Institute for International Educational
Research (DIPF) and financed both by the German Ministry of
Education and Research (BMBF) and the federal state Ministers of
Education. The extensive research piece entails all stages of
education from childhood and school education to vocational, higher
and adult education and bases its findings on respective
indicators.
An aging Knowledge Society
The main issue of this year's ´Bildungsbericht 2010´ is the
impact of demographic changes on educational institutions. Just as
almost all EU countries, Germany suffers from an aging population
with birth rates stagnating around 1,37 children per woman.
Especially educational institutions are challenged by this
development and have to adapt accordingly.
By 2025, the report predicts that the number of people
participating in educational institutions will decline by 15 %.
Particularly schools will be dealing with less pupils relieving
pressure in this phase of education. Universities, however, are
expected to constantly face high numbers of freshmen until 2025.
This trend is aggravated by the fact that Germany is moving towards
a Knowledge Society where an academic education becomes a
prerequisite for most jobs on the labor market.
According to the DIPF researchers, the number of skilled
university graduates therefore has to increase significantly to
meet this demand. In order to achieve this goal, it will be crucial
to integrate students with an immigrant or non-academic background
that currently often do not complete their studies.
Economic Growth Threatened
Economists predict that with a shrinking and aging active labour
force German long-term economic growth will average 1 % per year
until 2025. Consequently, the ´Bildungsbericht 2010´ states that
this trend has to be countered by involving more women, immigrants
and the elderly in the labor markets. This entails offering more
opportunities for women to combine career and family while
providing the elderly with training programs enabling them to adapt
to the demand for flexible skilled workers on the labor
markets.
The report warns that if policy makers will not respond to the
apparent demographic changes, Germany will face a situation where
low-qualified workers cannot find a job while firms desperately
lack high qualified professionals. Reforms that are necessary in
this process will be expensive and question many of the traditional
ways how to go about education.
Nevertheless, the outcome of adapting the educational
institution to a new environment will determine whether Germany
will be able to compete with rising powers such as India, China and
Brazil in the future. While the findings of the ´Bildungsbericht
2010´ were based on German data, many of its results may apply to
the Netherlands as well. Also the Netherlands are facing a
shrinking and aging labor force that will have to grow more
productive in order to guarantee sustained economic growth. Opening
up its educational institutions and labor markets to women,
immigrants and the elderly will play a crucial role to achieve
this.