A successful research exchange between Germany and China in the field of vocational education and training research has been taking place since 2010. On March 24, 2023, the 8th 'Sino-German Workshop on Vocational Education and Training Research' built on discourses from past conferences and joint research activities on topics related to vocational education and training. The corona-related digital conference was organized in collaboration between Prof. Dr. H.-Hugo Kremer (Paderborn University), Prof. Dr. Jiping Wang (Tongji University) and Prof. Dr. Bernd Gössling (University of Innsbruck). The established exchange format was thus organized for the second time with the participation of the business education location of Paderborn University.
In three sessions with two parallel slots, a total of 12 lectures were presented by VET experts from China, Germany, Austria, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium. The framing themes revolved around topics such as permeability between vocational and higher education, mobility and internationalization in vocational education and training and vocational education and training in the context of digitalization. Paderborn Business Education also took part with a presentation by Peter F. E. Sloane, Fabian Ludolph, Stephanie Wilde and H.-Hugo Kremer, in which the further development of the established ASBE (Asian Studies in Business and Education) program of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics was discussed.
The final item on the program included a workshop that focused on development prospects for post-Covid cooperation between China and Germany in the field of vocational education and training research. Against this background, it was finally unanimously decided that the 9th edition of the 'Sino-German Workshop on Vocational Education and Training Research' should take place at Tongji University and again in presence.