"Integrate underachievers, win over overachievers!"

The numbers recently presented by the German Federal Statistical Office regarding the current state of the vocational education and training market reflect the industry's problems in finding suitable young talent, a problem long since lamented by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK).

In 2012, the dual system produced a total of 3.1 per cent less conclusions of new apprenticeship contracts than in the previous year; with regards to the chambers of industry and commerce (IHKs), the decrease was 2.8 per cent.

However, this is not a matter of lack of demand, emphasised Achim Derks, Deputy Chief Executive of the DIHK, during an interview with the news agency dpa: "The businesses would have entered into far more contracts, if they had been able to find sufficient numbers of applicants fit for and willing to enter into an apprenticeship", said Dercks. Yet in the previous year, the number of school graduates was almost 2 per cent fewer than in 2011.

In future, said Dercks, it will be down to improving the match between the apprenticeship placements offered by the businesses on the one hand and, on the other, the wishes of the young people themselves as regards their vocational education and training expectations. It will also be down to improved integration in the vocational training system of underachievers while, at the same time, winning over more overachievers for a non-academic career. In this context, he indicated the joint apprenticeship placement exchange launched on the internet by the IHKs at the beginning of 2012.

"Young people finding themselves in ineffective school programmes must be motivated and rendered fit for in-company vocational education and training", Dercks stressed. "For overachievers, the dual study courses need to be further expanded and more opportunities for work experience abroad and additional qualifications already during the apprenticeship are required."