Supporting labour market oriented technical and vocational education and training systems and functioning labour markets requires partnership in order to make our contributions more effective. In many cooperation countries we work closely with development banks, the EU, multilateral and bilateral donors. We make it our business to see that technical and vocational education and training remains a central theme on the education agenda. From our experiences in Uganda, Yemen and Egypt we see how bilateral cooperation can become a part of an internationally coordinated sectoral programme, reinforcing its impact.

The complex nature of many tasks repeatedly requires new expertise. Here we do not regard ourselves as a technical or research institution; instead, our role is to be an intermediary between reform needs and technical expertise. To make this possible, we cultivate our cooperation in Germany with the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), as well as with universities and business associations.

In francophone areas we make our work areas more effective by cooperating with the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Developpement) and the International Vocational Training Experts Group, GEFOP (Group d’Experts de la Formation Professionelle).

The Working Group for International Cooperation in Skills Development is another international network we have joined. Since 1996 this has been a forum for the principal European donors to exchange ideas on policy consulting in international vocational training cooperation.

We present the results of our work at international events and promote networking between local and regional experts. For many years the sector network International Vocational Education and Training Association (IVETA) has been supported in conducting conferences. Since 1999 we have held, together with the Verband berufliche Qualifizierung (Q-Verband), the German Business Qualification Africa Conferences.

Together with other institutions, we speak out internationally for the potential of  social part-nership training models. We conduct regular dialogues within and outside of Germany with chambers of foreign trade (AHK), associations of German industry, the German Association of Skilled Crafts, and sectoral business institutes.

Furthermore, GIZ – together with the BIBB and InWent, Capacity Building International (now part of GIZ), Germany – is part of an initiative of German education and development institutions supported by the German Government. Its objective is to promote the potential of German technical and vocational education and training models for social and economic development in cooperation countries. This is the foundation for expanding the market for German service suppliers in the area of  technical and vocational education and training cooperation.

The Expert Panel of  Consultancies offers the opportunity to exchange and share experiences with consultancies on trends and innovations in international technical and vocational education and training cooperation. The Forum on Human Resources Development and the Labour Market has the objective to intensify exchanges between sectoral and research institutions as well as consultancies and independent experts in Germany on topics dealing with labour market policies and instruments in development cooperation.

On behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Coopertion and Development (BMZ), GIZ (former GTZ) established Crystal.networking, a forum on developing a coordinated eLearning/Blended Learning course for German technical and vocational education and training cooperation. Mutual partners in the network include BIBB, German Development Service (DED), InWent (DED and InWEnt now GIZ) and KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW development bank).

• Crystal Network
  Crystal Network

• Group d’Experts de la Formation Professionelle (GEFOP)
  www.gefop.org
• Working Group for International Cooperation in Skills Development
  www.norrag.org
• Initiative "EDVANCE"
  www.edvance-net.de