Japan has technical and junior colleges that provide, among others, engineering technology degrees comparable to U.S. associate degrees in this field. The number of Japanese degrees at this level are, however, relatively small, amounting to about one-fifth of Japan's university degrees in engineering (Monbusho 1991). In 1991, Japan produced around 18,000 degrees at the associate level and 87,000 engineering degrees at the bachelors level. Programs of study in engineering technology offered at Japanese junior colleges include information processing, laboratory technician training, and electronics (Cummings 1993). Graduates in Japanese technical colleges are trained in more narrowly specialized technical areas in engineering (production, construction, industrial chemistry, information, and electronics) than are junior college graduates. Over 90 percent of Japan's junior and technical college graduates directly enter the country's high-skill labor force.

German polytechnics, called Fachhochschulen, prepare students for work in various technical specialties. There is no equivalent institution in the United States, but the bachelors degree in engineering technology in U.S. universities is similar to the Fachhochschulen engineering degree. With approximately one-third of the college-age population of the United States, Germany produced 20,000 Fachhochschulen graduates in 1990--slightly more than the 19,000 U.S. engineering technology degrees awarded at the bachelors level that year.

Fachhochschulen were established in the early 1970s as an educational reform to address the serious shortage of skilled workers (Von Friedeburg 1990). They are an important source of training for engineers, accounting for slightly more than the number of university engineering degrees awarded in Germany (Mintzes and Tash 1984). Germany would like to divert more of its engineering students from universities to Fachhochschulen and have an even greater percentage of graduates trained in these polytechnics. The German Government is establishing new Fachhochschulens in the former East Germany to create a more highly skilled labor force and to foster economic growth in that region.

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