The Institute for Vocational, Economics and Business Education comprises various economic education institutions of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Cologne.
The Institute includes
- the Chair for Economics and Business Education - Prof. Dr. Matthias Pilz,
- the Professorship for Vocational and Business Education - Prof. Dr. Detlef Buschfeld and
- the Professorship for Business Education - Prof. Dr. Nicole Naeve-Stoß.
The chair holders are at the same time the institute directors and take over the management in an annual cycle. The operational tasks assigned to the institute are essentially carried out by the staff of the secretariat and the library.
The academic senior official holds a coordinating function and is in charge of the operational management.
In addition to the three chairs, the "Institute for Vocational, Economic and Business Education" is connected to affiliated institutions, e.g. The Research Institute for Vocational Training in the Craft Trades (FBH) which was founded in 1951 and is currently chaired by Prof. Dr. Buschfeld.
Prof. Pilz founded the German Research Center for Comparative Vocational Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) for the area of international comparative VET research.
In addition, Prof. Buschfeld is chairman of the Cologne Working Committee for Economics / Education (registered association), which supports various projects with economic education questions and publishes the Cologne Journal for Economics and Education (since 1986).