The project "WB German Course" provides scientific support for the ongoing pilot project "German Course for Cognitively Impaired People in the State of Bremen", which is directed to employees in workshops for people with disabilities. In the context of the accompanying research, the German courses are evaluated and a modified teaching structure is tested in order to be able to optimize content and methods with regard to a participatory teaching structure. The recommendations for action resulting from the accompanying research are designed to support the institutions offering the courses in achieving the objective of greater participation of the students in the whole of society.

Against the backdrop of the challenges of the transformation of companies in the vehicle industry in the state of Bremen and its surrounding area, the continuing education network aims to promote and coordinate a regional continuing education programme that meets the qualification needs of companies to shape the transformation and contributes to the strategic development of a demand-oriented skilled labour base.

Parents and guardians are the most important reference persons for many young people in phases of professional orientation. Nevertheless, decisive inequalities and uncertainties are emerging in the cooperation between schools and parents. Socio-economically disadvantaged families in particular are prematurely overlooked. After the previous project "BOGyO - Berufliche Orientierung für die gymnasialen Oberstufen" (Professional Orientation for Upper Secondary Schools) made a further contribution to the systematic improvement of Bremen's PO structures, the project is now being deepened in order to be able to better organize the active cooperation with socio-economically disadvantaged parents on the part of the schools.

In the project "Digitalization and Inequality in the Context of Vocational Education and Training", vocational education and training is used as a lens with which inequalities arising from digitalization processes can be identified simultaneously at various levels of society, in order to clarify questions about the origins and formation of precisely these inequalities and to develop recommendations for action.

In the joint project "KIM – Artificial Intelligence as a Mentor for Lifelong Learning", an AI solution will be developed that offers users of professional training platforms targeted assistance in the selection of training opportunities. The users and their professional and career wishes are the focus of the project. They initially carry out a self-assessment of their competencies and express their current professional and career wishes, as well as their own preferences (e.g. free and paid offers, time restrictions with regard to course offers, etc.).

In the KIWI project, an application for smartphones is being developed for employees in production that enables a cross-platform search for precisely matching training and further education offers with the help of artificial intelligence. Due to digitalization and the associated increase in automation, production is subject to rapid change, which is also going hand in hand with changes in requirement profiles and job profiles.

Problem: Especially in the logistics area we are observing a similarity of a continuing digitalisation with corresponding substitution risk plus a minor participation in further education. So indisputable the necessity of learning is, it is as difficult to develop further education types to let them address equally company and occupational biographic perspectives.

More women in IT - but how? Since the end of last year, the project "F.IT Frauen in IT" has been working on an answer to this question. Through targeted training and further education offers, the project wants to create the possibility of a lateral entry into the industry for women. In order to successfully implement this goal, it is crucial to know the needs and requirements of the target group.

In the course of the project, a compendium of dual approaches to training in the information technology (IT) sector in Italy, Germany, Spain and Northern Ireland will be compiled. To this end, all dual education programs in the participating countries that can be considered fully qualifying, i.e. on level 3 or above of the German/European Qualifications Framework (DQR/EQR) will be analyzed and their strengths and weaknesses described. In Germany, in addition to the classic dual vocational training courses in the sector (level 4), the dual courses of study at bachelor level (6) and the dual master's course of study at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bremen at level 7 are also included. The aim of the project is to submit a full proposal in the funding line "Centers of Vocational Excellence".

Progressive digitalisation and networking in industry and craft sector are increasingly changing requirements and activities in the occupation of agricultural and construction machinery mechatronics technician. This includes increased use of diagnostic, analysis and design software in agricultural and construction machinery technology, advancing use of high-voltage technology, increasing system networking as well as augmented/virtual and mixed reality technologies. However, inter-company training programmes for trainees in agricultural and construction machinery mechatronics do not take this digital change into account to a sufficient extent yet. The project "tekom_LandBauMT" addresses these challenges by modernising inter-company training measures for agricultural and construction machinery mechatronics technicians.

Learning at work and at vocational schools can be supported by the use of technology, respectively by the development of up-to-date and attractive learning materials. In order to develop these technological advantages, teachers and trainers in vocational training have to develop new skills and competences.

Human beings are at the center of knowledge-intensive manufacturing processes. They must be qualified and flexible to meet the requirements of their working environment. Training new workers in these processes is time-consuming and costly for companies. Industries such as Italian textile sector are suffering from shortage of skilled workers caused, for example, by demographic change. A second challenge for the manufacturing sector is constant competition of high-quality products. COALA will address both challenges through innovative design and development of a voice-controlled digital intelligent assistant for manufacturing sector.

Together with KAEFER Isoliertechnik GmbH & Co. KG, the ITB is carrying out a project in which a digitally supported, work process-oriented and competence-promoting training concept is being developed and implemented in training practice for the professions of "industrial skilled worker" and "industrial insulator".

In many countries like Romania (RO) and Portugal (PT) Vocational Education and Training (VET) is considered as second choice; as an educational pathway for those who failed in reaching Higher Education (HE). One of the main reasons of this rather poor image of VET is that it often must be considered as a “dead-end” educational pathway; once you started a “blue collar” job; no or only few options of career opportunities in terms of Continuous Vocational Education and Training (CVET) exist. Thus, more challenging occupations like working for the Quality Assurance (QA), Design or Production Planning departments are reserved for colleagues with an educational background from HE. But even in countries with established CVET-programmes like Germany (DE), where the qualifications of an industrial or handicraft foreman or technician are country-wide acknowledged and have a very good image, the academic drift is obvious. For our sector (industrial shoe production) a worrying indicator is: In the last two years, when the only industrial foreman course for this occupation was offered, not enough participants (countrywide only six needed) applied – and the courses had to be withdrawn.

The JoinMe2 project aims to (further) develop the competencies of teachers at universities with regard to an equal and diversity-sensitive approach to students. For this purpose, the attitudes of teachers and students towards different aspects of diversity will be investigated by means of a questionnaire survey and country-specific overviews of the current state of research will be compiled. Subsequently, training materials for the development of a difference-sensitive attitude and critical diversity competence will be created and tested. During the entire project period, an online portal will also be developed, which will contain a literature and material database that teachers and students can access on a long-term and sustainable basis.

The project "IMMO-TEC: Development of action-oriented and competence-based teaching/learning arrangements for vocational training of real estate agents in the field of climate and energy efficiency" is to be assigned to the strategic future field “space” - project family: "climate-friendly construction". In relation to the region of the Rhenish mining area new requirement profiles for construction industry and thus also for real estate industry will be necessary in everyday professional life and associated action-oriented competencies of employees.

The SteBs project pursues the overarching aim of structurally strengthening and further expanding vocational teacher training in Bremen and thus contributing to the Bremen vocational training dialogue. On the basis of a cross-phase and cross-subject cooperation between the actors involved in vocational teacher training, concepts for the promotion of professional competence in line with the didactical paradigm of a complete action of teachers are developed and tested.

Das Entwicklungsprojekt Berufswahlpass 4.0 (BWP 4.0) hat zum Ziel, ein bundesweit und schulformübergreifend eingesetztes E-Portfolio zur Unterstützung des selbstgesteuerten Lernens im Rahmen der Beruflichen Orientierung von Schülerinnen und Schülern (SuS) zu entwickeln und zu erproben.

Challenge and Objectives: In the German-speaking countries, there are various research strands regarding the internationalization of vocational education and training (VET) cooperation in the fields of development research, transfer research, European VET cooperation, service research, corporate research and network research. MP-INVET focuses on establishing a network of research and development activities from the "Research for the Internationalization of Vocational Education and Training" funding initiative and the systematic analysis of the results to strengthen the visibility and international connectivity of the new research program in the long term.

TiQusA includes three sub-projects, in which further training concepts will be developed for the areas of youth welfare, living together in the neighborhood and working with young people.