Research Data Centre of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB-FDZ)

Based on a wide range of surveys, the Research Data Centre of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB-FDZ) offers several services for researchers:

• documentation and preparation of firm and individual micro data: the respective data sets deal with several issues mainly covering the acquiring and utilization process of skills and competencies.
• advisory service on data selection and data access as well as handling, analysis potential, scope and validity of data.
• provision of several assisting tools in order to work with the data, for example suggestions for classifications in the fields of occupations, industries and regions (if possible also in an international comparative perspective).
• assistance and support for visiting researchers.
• updates and provision of additional variables for scientific use files created in the BIBB.

The BIBB-FDZ was founded in April 2008. Current activities of the BIBB-FDZ focus on the documentation and preparation of BIBB data sets in German language. On the other hand, several more or less unique English documentations exist for specific (i.e. large) data sets. A complete English translation of the products and a detailed description of the services offered by the BIBB-FDZ are expected in the year 2010. If international researchers are interested in working with BIBB data, one should not hesitate to contact the BIBB-FDZ.

Further information about the BIBB-FDZ (currently in German language only) is available via the internet, http://www.bibb-fdz.de. For a contact per e-mail please use fdz@bibb.de. In the subsection staff/contact (‘Mitarbeiter/ Kontakt’ in German) on our homepage, one finds all information required for a personal contact.