The IB considers access to qualified education as the key to a sustainable and secure future. The IB is a provider of basic, general, vocational and higher education services. The IB medical academies offer courses for a variety of health professions. The aim of all IB schools is to present young people with good educational and developmental opportunities as well as providing professional perspectives on the labour market. Alongside scholastic and vocational education and training, personality development is a major priority in our schools.In accordance with our mission statement we therefore also support pupils in critical developmental phases in IB schools to develop freely, live self-determined lives, integrate into society, take personal responsibility and to actively participate in the development of society. The schools of the IB are an alternative to public schools in many locations, so that pupils (respectively their parents) really can decide between different schools to individually determine their own educational processes.
‘Bridging the gap’ – this motto of the IB schools provides new opportunities for many: it means the creation of education chains, for instance from the vocational preparatory year to vocational training, then to a vocational school, which could end with meeting the entry requirements for university. Educational careers are made possible in the IB schools that also provide new educational opportunities to children of less educated families or late-starters. To justify the growing interest in the IB schools we focus on quality: we measure our success through our examination results, define challenges and take the necessary steps in the light of our results to adjust quality goals and further development plans.
The courses of the IB universities and academies are developed in cooperation with the private sector to ensure that the needs of the labour market are fully met. The courses are based on a combination of classical, full-time study and the successful German ‘cooperative education’ model, amongst others offering management studies and medical professions.
Primary schools are attended by children aged six to ten or twelve in Germany. This age group corresponds to grades one to four or six. Primary school is compulsory schooling. The children are taught basic mathematics, linguistics and general science and are instructed in social standards and basic rules of social behaviour to lay a foundation for continuing education at secondary schools, or vocational schools.
In Germany, secondary school education directly follows primary school. Different formats that are offered include comprehensive schools, separate lower and higher ability tiers, as well as vocational schools. In most federal states in Germany pupils have the opportunity to choose between these different kinds of schools. The comprehensive school, which can be visited until the 9th or 10th grade is thought to counteract a social development in which children and youth of different social groups in society are alienated from each other due to separate socialisation. In contrast to the lowest ties, which usually precludes students of educationally deprived backgrounds from higher education at an early stage, changes between the middle and higher tier are more usual. The regular qualification gained in the highest tier is the Abitur, which entitles to entry into higher education (at university level).
The mandatory dual vocational training system set out in the German educational system is unique in its form in Europe. It encompasses parallel training in companies and vocational schools. The vocational school system of the IB works as a partner to businesses and companies within the dual system of education on the one hand. On the other hand, it provides young people with a broad spectrum of offers that prepare for a vocational training in the dual system or directly provides vocational qualifications in combination with state-recognised certificates. With their permeable product portfolio that serves all types of schooling vocational schools provide varied and future oriented offers that are geared specifically to the career aspirations of the young people and their individual skills and talents. The vocational choice is an important step in every young person’s life and a completed vocational training is a solid base for professional success.
