Fast track apprenticeship for university drop-outs

Each year, almost a third of all students leave university without a degree. The federal government and the crafts now want to sponsor pilot projects to facilitate access to vocational education and training for university drop-outs.

Dropping out of university is seen as a gap in the CV by many, with some viewing it even as a sign of a lack of perseverance. Yet soon university drop-outs could be particularly sought after in the employment market. At least, this is what Johanna Wanka's (CDU) plans suggest.

As of January 2015, the Federal Minister for Education and Research wants to sponsor nationwide pilot projects that are designed to facilitate access to vocational education and training for university drop-outs. At the same time, small and medium-sized enterprises will be supported in hiring more university drop-outs. The Education Ministry will invest a total of 13.5 million Euro in these projects during this legislative period.

The plan is to create more advisory services for university drop-outs to win them back again faster for the employment and apprenticeship market. Moreover, they soon will be able to complete a kind of fast track apprenticeship: qualifications that were previously attained at university will be generously counted towards the apprenticeship. For instance, a former medical student could quickly become a hearing aid acoustician, a former architecture student could become a master concrete worker.

These pilot projects target a potential of several hundred thousand people: each year, almost a third of all students leave university without a degree. With the shortened apprenticeship for university drop-outs, the ministry mainly aims at combating the looming skilled labour shortage in Germany. According to estimates by German employers associations, there will be a lack of about 5.2 million skilled professionals by 2030.

The situation regarding the academic professions, however, has relaxed again, because more and more people in Germany choose to go to university. But people with vocational education and training remain in urgent demand. In the past year, 15,000 apprenticeship placements remained unfilled. Conversely, the number of first-time students increased by 129,000.