The Corona crisis has left deep scars on the German training market and has led to a sustained slump. Never since reunification have there been fewer young people in an apprenticeship in Germany than at the end of 2022, as the Federal Statistical Office reported on Wednesday. Only 1.216 million trainees are also the result of a lack of internships and contact opportunities during the pandemic, but at the same time they are also an expression of a long-standing crisis in the dual training system.
Young people are less and less opting for dual training: Despite the urgently needed young skilled workers, significantly fewer new training courses were started last year with 468,900 contracts than in the last year before the crisis, 2019, with 510,900 new contracts. The slight increase of 0.6 percent compared to 2021 cannot make up for the gaps in previous years. Ten years earlier, there were almost 100,000 more new contracts per year (2011: 561,100).
Skilled workers are missing
The next generation as well as qualified immigrants are urgently needed: there is a lack of skilled workers everywhere in Germany. Hardly a day goes by without an industry warning of serious consequences: the sick and old will soon no longer be able to be cared for, swimming pools will have to close in the future and the climate change in the boiler room is also threatened with failure due to a lack of plumbers.
The Central Association of German Skilled Trades paints a dark picture, according to which there is a shortage of 250,000 skilled workers, 30,000 training places are vacant and the successor is in question in 125,000 companies. ZDH President Jörg Dittrich calls for a turnaround in education: “Politics must finally ensure equal treatment of academic and dual training.”
painful consequences for society
If around half of the shrinking cohorts start studying, the gaps in skilled workers and helpers are programmed from the point of view of the craftsmen, with painful consequences for society as a whole. This starts with the daily services of general interest with food, heat, electricity or health products and services, which are in increasing demand in an aging society. Craftsmen are also indispensable for the ecological and digital transformation.
Nevertheless, the skilled trades recorded a further decline of 2.3 percent in the number of new professionals last year with 127,400 new contracts compared to the previous year. Doctors, lawyers, architects and other freelance professionals hired 43,400 young people, a drop of 2.5 percent here too. In the industry and trade sector, on the other hand, the number of new contracts rose by 2.9 percent over the year.
In the Corona period, with its lack of contact and information opportunities, the number of unfilled apprenticeship positions has also increased, as the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research (IAB) has determined. Nationwide, that was around 28 percent of all offers in 2021, in the east even more than every third training position (35 percent) remained unfilled. Only one in five companies (22 percent) took on new trainees in 2022.
The fact that 77 percent of the trainees were taken on after their graduation shows the high demand of the companies. The IAB researchers recommend making more companies capable of training. The existing training companies could also be more willing to compromise when it comes to their requirements and show young people more long-term development opportunities.
The federal government wants to take countermeasures
According to estimates, there are 2.3 million young people in Germany who have not completed vocational training, and almost 240,000 more are parked in transition systems between school and work. The federal government wants to take countermeasures with a training guarantee, if necessary also in external facilities. However, in the corresponding draft law of the Federal Ministry of Labour, in-company training is clearly given priority, while inter-company offers are only seen as a last resort.
IG Metall wants to make companies more responsible. “Short-sighted training boycotts by companies and cherry-picking among applicants harm everyone,” says board member Hans-Jürgen Urban. Those who do not train have to pay: “Payment-based training funds like the one in Bremen would make companies more responsible and provide more training incentives.”
