**4. Vocational training in Austria-history and characteristics**

#### **4.1 History of vocational training in Austria**

#### *4.1.1 Vocational training in Austria from fourteenth to nineteenth centuries*

Vocational training in Austria has a long history, especially when it comes to VET colleges. These colleges have a long tradition, coming from educational reforms of Maria Theresia in the eighteenth and from the influence of French educational ideas in the nineteenth century. Although, apprentice trainings have a much longer history than VET colleges and schools. During the fourteenth century, the craftsmen that were practicing their work in the cities, have also actively taken part in the city council. They have wanted to protect their interests and have decided to regulate the apprenticeship trainings by law. The guilds were formed during the eighteenth century and lasted until the nineteenth. They still show great persistence and have kept existing in some forms up until today. In the nineteenth century, through industrialization, the role of handworkers was reduced. More often, machines were used instead of manual work [14].

During the first half of the nineteenth century, there were Sunday school courses for apprentices who had been attending trainings in firms, in order to educate them about the positions they worked on but also to follow the degree of industrialization. These courses were, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, institutionalized, and there were already schools for apprentices. This was the time when VET colleges were recognized and institutionalized. Already then, these schools became obligatory by trade law, for all apprentices that are going through apprenticeship trainings in the trade branch.

#### *4.1.2 Vocational training in Austria during twentieth and twenty-first centuries*

This law was a base for further laws, all the way up until 1970s when the First Vocational Training Act-*Berufsausbildungsgesetz* (BAG) was published. Based on this, other vocational schools, even these that exist today, were formed, but they were recognized during the twentieth century. These decisions were foundations on which VET colleges were built, combining a strong, school-based VET and dual apprenticeship training. With their long tradition, they are still an option number one for many Austrian students. Education at VET colleges takes five years to complete and provides a double qualification-a VET certification and the possibility to enter higher education [15].

During the law reformation in 1994, these schools were no longer recognized as low-level schools but rather as schools of higher educational level. School years were prolonged, and the curriculum was modified to fit the duration of the training. Later on, the system was changed and reformed to fit the modernization of companies. Curriculums for new apprentice trainings in different branches were written and organized, and companies were supported through various measurements, be it a financial form or in the form of law.

Parallel with the development of the vocational schools, there have also been attempts to create fully school-based apprentice trainings. These schools were also recognized later, during the second half of the nineteenth century, due to the lack of qualified workers in the field of engineering. It was mostly thanks to the liberal government that these schools were recognized, since no other government before had any interest in these types of trainings [16].
