Are degrees in vocational training, general education, and higher education comparable? Are equal opportunities a reality in education? The study analyses the work, time, compromises, and interests of the members of the German Qualification Framework (AK DQR). Based on the socio-political meaning of vocational training, the author examines the DQR process as a social phenomenon. He uses structured interviews to display a negotiation process that has hardly been recognised by the public but entailed far-reaching implications. The formation process of vocational training policies as well as the meaning of the reached compromises constitutes the centre of the conducted research. The reconstruction of the DQR work indicates how the allocation mechanisms of the German education system process the social inequality in educational qualifications politically. The result explains how political self-understanding changes gradually and takes account of new social requirements, e.g. the task of giving disadvantaged persons access to the labour market.weiterlesen