Job orientation for students at school

The Federal Government supports the transition from school to vocational training or to university studies. Special programmes specifically aim at reducing the number of young people without school leaving certificate by 50 per cent.

In Germany, about 60 per cent of all young people receive their vocational training in the so-called dual system. They benefit from the cooperation of their employing company with a vocational college.

In order to help young people develop job perspectives and also to ensure that tomorrow’s demand for qualified personnel can be accomodated, another 1,200 so-called education pilots will be sent to schools. The programme of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) aims at helping students pass their school leaving certificates. Another 30,000 students are to benefit from special career plans for their last two school years and their first year of vocational training, which the education pilots design for each individual student.

The Federal Agency for Work (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) has already employed 1,000 education pilots. Apart from these pedagogically-trained staff who work on a full-time basis, another 1,000 senior experts shall contribute to the consulting project on a voluntary basis, as the BMBF enhances its cooperation with the Senior Citizen Expert Service. The government plans to run the programme for eight years and to invest 755 million euros in it.

In addition to the education pilot programme, the Federal Government will expand another job orientation programme. All 8th-grade students get the chance to have their job potentials analysed and to test three different jobs in special independent training facilities. Since its start in April 2008, 91,500 students have already participated in the programme. Many of them received better school grades afterwards and stated to have benefitted from their on-job experiences.

Further governmental measures to increase the professional qualifications of young people include special orientation for girls with regard to typical male occupations, special job entrance qualifications, training bonus for companies who train youths and vocational training on a part-time basis for young people with a family.