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Nationwide curriculum adopted in Germany
23rd of November 2021 Article by Katja Scholz
German reporter Katja Scholz brings news of a nationwide training programme for cleaning.
The new regulations for the Master Craftsman’s examination came into force in Germany at the beginning of the year. These require candidates to take on more commercial and human resources topics, such as company organisation, quality management and employment and data protection.
Megatrends in digital technology, efficient use of resources and environmental protection will also be included. The new regulations are consistent with the federal government’s thinking on sustainable development, reflecting the German sustainability strategy, and provide a tool for ensuring quality in the contract cleaning trade.
The Federal Guild of Contract Cleaners (BIV) would like to take this a step further. “The subject of quality assurance is a very important one; however, we are also committed to supporting our master craftsmen, and to giving them a clear framework for action,” says Steffi Reuter, BIV director of PR and professional development. “For us, that means recommending nationwide uniform standards for the content of Master Craftsman training.”
And how does this next step look in practice? For the first time, the BIV has developed a nationwide uniform framework curriculum for parts I and II of the Master Craftsman training – the content specifically designed to meet the requirements of the contract cleaning trade. The curriculum, which was adopted in September, incorporates the requirements of the Master Craftsman’s examination regulations and supports them with appropriate learning content, advice on number of hours needed and guidelines relevant to the design of the Master Craftsman preparatory courses.
“The framework curriculum serves as a recommendation: it is not a compulsory tool. Just as it is not compulsory in the contract cleaning trade in Germany to have the Master Craftsman qualification in order to set up your own company. But there is no question it is helpful in generating the confidence needed to fulfil the requirements that go hand in hand with owning your own company.
“So we regarded it as equally important to ensure the Master Craftsman training programme along with the framework curriculum was modernised to make it more attractive to (young) people,” explained Reuter.
Running your own skilled trade business requires, for example, designing and optimising company operating procedures and the technologies or techniques used, evaluating the results of work and maintaining quality, strategically shaping customer relationships, identifying market trends and exploiting them for the business’ benefit – these are all topics incorporated into the new framework curriculum.
This is the transition period during which both the new Master Craftsman’s regulations and the framework curriculum are being implemented and put into practice by the appropriate institutions.
“We shall then ask those involved how implementation is working out,” Reuter said, “what the feedback is and whether there are any possible suggestions for change – since our prime objective is to uphold the quality of the contract cleaning trade. This includes the recruitment of younger trainees as well as a modern and attractive training plan.”
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