The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) is recognised as a centre of excellence for vocational research and for the progressive development of vocational education and training (VET) in Germany. BIBB works to identify future challenges in VET, stimulate innovation in national and international vocational systems, and develop new, practice-oriented solutions for both initial and continuing vocational education and training.

Technological, economic and social change presents companies with the constant challenge of maintaining a highly qualified skilled workforce. In Germany, the structural foundation for these qualifications is the dual system of initial vocational training and company-based continuing vocational training. At the same time, a dual system programme of initial vocational training lays the foundation for lifelong learning. Both initial and continuing vocational education and training are investments in the future.

Being directly accountable to the Federal Government, BIBB is funded directly from the federal government budget and is subject to the legal supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Since 1999 its headquarters have been in Bonn.

The BIBB Mission Statement runs as follows: “Our research is directed towards significant issues relating to vocational education and training and contributes to theoretical development. It is of an interdisciplinary nature and is bound by academic research standards. We cooperate with institutes of higher education and research bodies, foster up and coming academic talent and enable the field of academic research to gain access to research data.”