Partial qualifications allow adults to obtain vocational degrees, step-by-step, as appropriate for their personal circumstances. In cooperation with science, practice, politics and the economy, we are identifying success factors and developing recommendations for how a comprehensive, connective program for modular qualification might be designed.

The opening of the social shears and shortage of specialized personnel show: Germany must finally start recognizing and making use of informally and non-formally acquired skills. Especially for people without a formal professional or higher education degree. Based on studies and practical examples, foreign and domestic, we illustrate how this might work.

Advances in technology – from the Internet of things to artificial intelligence, automation and big data – promise to reshape the labor market and economy in dramatic ways, said Denis McDonough, former chief of staff to U.S. President Barack Obama, at the ninth annual Bertelsmann Foundation-Financial Times conference in Washington, DC.