Skilled trades provide university dropouts with career prospects.
A practice-oriented vocational education and training course is the better choice for many A-level graduates, because a university course does not correspond to their personality.
Yet even so, they often choose university, because their personal environment, often their parents, prefer them to do so. This proves to be the wrong decision in many cases. Having started university with different expectations, students are often disenchanted and give up after the first few semesters.
According to analyses by the Hochschul-Informations-System eG (HIS eG – University Information System), this applies to up to 30 per cent of all bachelor students; in the engineering courses every second student opts out of university. They are more inclined towards practical application than towards strict studying of theory. Yet what are the professional prospects for these university dropouts?
Career without university
The project "Vom Hörsaal zum Handwerk" (From the lecture theatre to the crafts) organised by the four chambers of crafts in the German Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland Chamber of Crafts provides entirely new approaches and solutions.
The aim is to win over students from Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland, who have abandoned their academic career, to take up a career in the skilled trades that is based on a dual system vocational education and training course. This increase in qualified professionals could sustainably help to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises.
Each chamber appoints a student coach who will be the central contact partner both for the students and the skilled trades businesses. Tailored placement in an apprenticeship will be ensured by way of the earliest possible counselling of potential university dropouts and by providing individual information regarding offers and demand.
Vocational education and training prospects
Together with the universities, the chambers of crafts provide university dropouts with information about their prospects within the vocational education and training system.
A dual system apprenticeship is by no means a career setback, but offers numerous opportunities for the successful planning of one's life and career. A generation change is soon about to take place in every fourth skilled trades business in the district of the Koblenz Chamber of Crafts (HwK). This will give qualified young entrepreneurs the chance to take over and independently manage a master craftsman business.
"The skilled trades need qualified young talent. The skills required in many occupations have increased due to technological change", emphasise Kurt Krautscheid and Alexander Baden, President and Managing Director of the Koblenz Chamber of Crafts (HwK).
The chamber vanguard has been repeatedly and emphatically promoting the preservation of the master craftsman obligation. "The master craftsman must be awarded as much positive recognition as a university graduate. This provides an incentive for the increased popularity of the skilled trades", the chamber vanguard demands of policy makers.
The above-mentioned project is funded by Jobstarter plus, a funding programme of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.