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People in Baden-Wurttemberg are not keen to talk in superlatives, even though the state continually sets records. The region around Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Tübingen is one of those in the EU where the most research is conducted. Baden-Wurttemberg is the German leader for patent registrations in terms of population, and famed for its inventors, such as Gottlieb Daimler, Carl Benz and Robert Bosch. Not only companies such as Bosch, Daimler, Porsche and Boss, but also small and medium-sized businesses such as Fischer (dowels), Stihl (saws) and Würth (screws) export their goods worldwide. Yet here, there is more to life than just work: Nowhere else in the country do so many starred chefs ply their trade. And the local wines are so good as to be an inside tip.
Capital: Stuttgart
Population: 11.280.257
Surface area: 35,751 km2
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is an organization run jointly by the German institutes of higher education. Its purpose is to promote relations between higher education institutes in Germany and abroad, especially through exchange schemes between students and academics. As a rule its programs cover all disciplines and countries and are open to German and foreign students in equal measure. The DAAD supports a worldwide network of offices, lecturers and alumni associations and provides information and advice on a local basis.
→ daad.de
The Federal Government and cabinet is made up of the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers. While the Chancellor holds the power to issue directives, the ministers have departmental powers, meaning that they independently run their respective ministries in the framework of those directives. Moreover, the cabinet abides by the collegial principle, in disputes the Federal Government decides by majority. The affairs of state are managed by the Chancellor.
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft conducts applied research. Clients include industrial companies and service providers as well as the public sector. More than 30,000 employees are involved in generating the annual research volume of 3 billion euros. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft operates 76 institutes and research facilities in Germany, as well as cooperating with independent foreign organisations in Europe, North and South America and Asia.
With 18 research centres, an annual budget of EUR 5.8 billion and more than 43,000 members of staff the Helmholtz Association is Germany’s largest scientific organization. It conducts research into energy, the earth and the environment, health, aerospace, transport, materials and key technologies.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was founded in 1860 and today promotes academic collaboration between excellent foreign and German researchers. Every year it enables 2,000 international researchers to spend time working in Germany and maintains a worldwide network of some 30,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in over 140 countries – including 61 Nobel Prize winners.
The Max Planck Society was founded on 26 February 1948 – as the successor to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, established in 1911. The 85 Max Planck institutes conduct basic research in the natural, biological and social sciences and in the humanities. The Max Planck Society founded along with partner universities the Max Planck Research Schools with their international focus. The Max Planck Society employs a total of 24,000 staff (2015), around 60 percent of them work in scientific disciplines.
→ mpg.de
Dual vocational training is quite unique internationally. After leaving school, many young people follow one of more than 300 state-recognised apprenticeship training programmes under the dual system. This entry into professional life differs from vocational training based only in colleges such as is customary in many other countries. The practical part of the course takes part on 3 or 4 days of the week in a company; the other 1 or 2 days are spent with specialist theoretical instruction in a vocational school. The courses take 2-3.5 years. In-company training is supported by courses and additional qualification facilities outside the companies. Training is financed by the companies, which pay the trainees/apprentices wages, while the government bears the costs of the vocational schools. Some 500,000 young people conclude new vocational training agreements under the two-track vocational training system each year Thanks to the Two-Track System, in Germany the number of young people without a profession or traineeship is comparatively low. This combination of theory and practical work guarantees that the craftsmen and skilled workers have prime qualifications. Vocational training is also a launchpad for a career that can, via advanced training, lead to participants becoming master craftsmen and women. Today, a qualification track is possible that via advanced training alongside the job can lead even as far as a university Master’s degree.
There is great international interest in the German vocational training system. One focus of the international vocational training cooperation activities by Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB) is to foster cooperation with partner institutes.
→ bibb.de