How an Apprenticeship Can Direct Learners Beyond the Local Context of Teaching and Learning: Transferable Skills in Germany's Dual System of Vocational Education

Prior research showed that trainees/apprentices in the German dual system (DS) acquire what can be termed transferable skills, such as being able to assess when more information is needed and how to get it. This paper draws on the British educational sociologist Basil Bernstein and his code theory to approach the question of how these learners acquire such skills. Embedded in Bernstein’s code is an orientation to meanings, which in formal education is elaborated, that is, it takes learners beyond a narrowly localised orientation. The paper argues that an elaborated orientation, first indications for which in the DS were found in prior research, is a necessary precondition also for skills transfer. A Beruf, a Germanic conceptualisation of occupation and one of the DS’s organisational principles, can be regarded as a discourse in Bernstein’s sense. With Bernstein, the paper argues that a boundary principle within Beruf education, which is established by the social partners, concerns not only sites, but also knowledge, agents and discourse, and can be encountered also at the micro-level of transmission.  The paper’s empirical part draws on retrospective problem-centred interviews with graduates to illustrate learners’ experiences of boundaries in the DS. Respondents spoke of medium strong boundaries (school and company knowledge complementing each other) or even very strong boundaries (no relation or even contradiction between Beruf-school knowledge and company knowledge). However, respondents used the different knowledges productively, to the effect that they acquired the transferable skill of being able to assess when more information is needed and how to get it. Moreover, respondents were able to see the different knowledges as socially created and positioned and to relate them to the overarching Beruf discourse. In conclusion, the paper points to the relevance of the discursive regulation of company learning by Beruf for the development of elaborated orientations and a disposition for skills transfer.