• Education: a highly structured system with a distinction between universities providing traditional scientific education and Fachhochschulen focusing on the practical application of scientific subjects; a comprehensive vocational training system through apprenticeship contracts with companies or with vocational training institutes supervised by chambers of handicrafts and commerce for young people, with practical training within these systems complemented by part-time theoretical education in vocational and technical schools;

comprehensive adult training; with junior management recruited from the universities and increasingly from the Fachhochschulen (Blum, 1994).