High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In Germany, vocational schools ? Berufsschulen ? have a history stretching back to the 19th century. A German Berufsschule is generally a secondary public school and does not charge tuition fees. Today they are part of the dual education system which combines apprenticeships in a company and vocational training in a school, both taking place over the same period of time on different days of the week or in blocks of several weeks. As part of the dual education system, the Berufsschule is a part-time school, with students attending 8?12 45-minute lessons a week. Sometimes schooling is arranged in blocks of several weeks, in particular for trades which are only learnt by a small number of people. The rest of the students' time is spent learning at the company where they take their apprenticeship.