Berlin In view of the massive problems on the training market and the increasing shortage of skilled workers, the President of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) is pushing the traffic light to present a concept for the announced “training guarantee”. “We are waiting for a proposal from the Minister of Labor,” said the CDU vizin and Minister of Education of Schleswig-Holstein Karin Prien the Handelsblatt.
Unlike the employers, Prien does not flatly reject a training guarantee: “I am open, but skeptical.” However, she warns against a “simple copy of the Austrian model – that doesn’t make sense to me”.
The Ministry of Labor had announced that it wanted to follow the example of its neighbors. The guarantee is intended to “enable all young people access to fully qualifying vocational training, always with priority in the company,” according to the coalition agreement. In regions with a significant undersupply, external apprenticeships should also be offered – “in close consultation with the social partners”.
In Austria, since 2017 there has been a “guarantee” for training for all unskilled workers up to the age of 25. Eight percent of the apprentices are trained at state expense or in cooperation with companies in occupations that are determined together with industry.
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Half of the places are in Vienna, where there are particularly few in-company apprenticeships. According to the Vienna Minister of Labor, 42 percent continue their apprenticeship in the company after one year. A total of 80 percent graduate, and up to two-thirds could be placed in companies, thus alleviating the shortage of skilled workers.
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According to the Federal Agency’s internal plans, state government training in Germany should be organized “regionally and for a limited period of time”, according to a concept available to the Handelsblatt. Bonuses for the providers and for the apprentices themselves are intended to “motivate them to switch to company training early”.
Employer: “There are enough apprenticeships”
The priority here, however, is for the guarantee to “solve the matching problem,” warns Prien. What is meant is the absurd situation that supply and demand on the training market are finding each other less and less – and so the shortage of skilled workers is increasing with a time lag. On the one hand, around 40 percent of companies could not fill all apprenticeship positions in 2021. This year the situation looks even more dramatic.
At the same time, masses of applicants do not get a chance because they are looking for other jobs than those offered or simply live in the wrong place. In 2021, almost 25,000 remained unplaced, another 43,000 were looking for an alternative, but maintained their desire for an apprenticeship. In addition, 230,000 school leavers switched to the transition system instead of starting an apprenticeship.
Young people often lack insight into the world of work.
(Photo: imago images/Georg Ulrich Dostmann)
However, Prien warns that “it makes no sense to replace one transitional system with another” in order to fill the training guarantee with life. The vocational schools currently mainly offer “years of basic vocational training” or the opportunity to catch up on a degree. So far, a complete or partial apprenticeship in state administration has not been possible. Therefore, one must “look at where that makes sense regionally and what alternatives there are,” said the KMK President.
Employers fundamentally reject a training guarantee, saying it is “neither necessary nor useful”. After all, in Germany only in Berlin are there many more interested parties than apprenticeships. In Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia the number of places offered is at least slightly higher than demand, in all other federal states there are far more places than applicants. Instead, what is needed above all is far better career orientation in schools.
First we have to see how a guarantee can alleviate the shortage of skilled workers – then we can talk about money. Karin Prien, Education Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, on a state training guarantee
In order to finance a state training guarantee, the DGB demands a training contribution from companies. At least that does not exclude Prien either. However, it is currently “much too early to demand or reject this”. First it must be clear “how a guarantee can alleviate the shortage of skilled workers and help all interested young people to get training – then we can talk about money and modern instruments for financing”.
The BA advocates tax financing. Because if an apprenticeship at state expense is only offered in individual regions, this speaks against financing through contributions, according to their concept.
Fewer and fewer companies are training
In the short term, Prien sees a particular challenge for the vocational schools: They must “now do everything” so that young people who end up in the transitional system again this year “can switch to training very quickly during the school year. In many places this will still be possible without any problems in the coming months.”
In general, she calls for more commitment from companies: “It doesn’t help: In view of the demographics, companies have to advertise more for themselves and their professional opportunities, also because parents and students often know far too little about possible professions.”
And despite the frequent lack of applicants, the companies should also offer more apprenticeships, the KMK President appeals, “because otherwise they will have even greater problems finding skilled workers”.
In addition, “more applicants who are not now being considered in their region could then find a place”. In the meantime, 19.4 percent of all companies still provide training. In 2009 it was 23.3 percent.
More: More and more young people are getting bogged down in unskilled jobs – but tens of thousands of apprenticeships remain vacant