How vocational education and training is to be made more attractive

The German skilled trades appeal for young talent in an image campaign.

The dual system of vocational education and training is to be made more attractive and policy makers and the industry have come up with quite a few ideas to this end. After the Vocational Education and Training Report 2015 was published, which included news about a record high of unfilled apprenticeship placements, representatives from the individual guilds have come up with solutions how to possibly win over more youths for an apprenticeship and how to address new groups of candidates.

For instance, the federal government intends to win over more university drop-outs for an apprenticeship in the dual system. To this end, the federal government wants to campaign for allowing a shortened apprenticeship for university drop-outs, said Chancellor Angela Merkel.

First experiences towards this have already been made: some companies are taking part in a pilot project for university drop-outs called 'Switch'. The project is part of the 'Jobstarter plus' programme, organised by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The project develops and tests measures and models regarding the initial vocational training or advanced training for university drop-outs.

The federal government intends to try also another approach: in future, it aims at improving the transition from school to an apprenticeship by way of a funding programme comprising EUR 1.3 billion. For example, the money will be invested to provide smaller businesses with coaching regarding how to deal with lower grade secondary modern school pupils.

So far, these potential apprentices have very little prospects of obtaining an apprenticeship placement, as a German Trade Union Federation study recently revealed: 62 per cent of all apprenticeship placements offered in the Chamber of Industry and Commerce apprenticeship exchange exclude this group from applications from the outset, the analysis concludes.

The Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (Deutsche Industrie- und Handelskammer, DIHK) likewise campaigns for taking into consideration youths who so far have very few prospects of securing an apprenticeship.

In a report by the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" newspaper, DIHK Managing Director Martin Wansleben spoke in particular in favour of the programme of 'assisted apprenticeships', which the German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit, BA) uses to support mainly small and medium-sized enterprises in providing vocational education and training for youths with learning difficulties. "In a first step, the provision of up to 10,000 placements is targeted for the training year 2015/2016", said Wansleben.

In turn, the BA campaigns for a group that so far has not been included either in the standard target group of apprentice recruiters: asylum seekers, refugees and tolerated foreigners should be integrated faster into apprenticeships and the employment market, the BA suggests.

"Many people who come to us as refugees as a result of war, forced migration or political persecution, remain here for a long period or even forever. In order for them to be able to quickly earn their own livelihood, we need increased support and assistance in their integration into the labour market, especially regarding language courses, and this is not available at zero cost", said Peter Clever, Chairman of the BA Supervisory Board.

With the pilot project 'Early Intervention', the BA has made first experiences regarding support for qualified refugees. A report by the BA stated that this illustrates the fact that fast access to the labour market can be well achieved through a mixture of corresponding commitment and use of resources as well as intensive networking.

Representatives of the German skilled trades have chosen a creative approach to combat the recruitment problems documented in the Vocational Education and Training Report and to render the skilled trade occupations more attractive for the next generation of apprentices.

Following the motto "Abklatschen! Hol Dir meinen Job" (Cut in! Get my job), twelve young craftsmen about to graduate recently sought successors for their apprenticeship jobs; the picture illustrating this news shows a representative of the guild of tailors. In a video, the 'old' apprentices show which characteristics are important in their occupation and how this occupation works.

DIHK Deputy Managing Director Achim Dercks recommends yet another form of advertising: teachers should advertise the dual system of vocational education and training amongst upper secondary school graduates. "If upper secondary school pupils about to graduate know nothing about the 'other world' of vocational education and training, they automatically decide in favour of a degree course and possibly for the wrong reasons", says Dercks. "We have to convince grammar school teachers that they should not always advertise a degree course, but enable pupils to make an informed choice."