Skilled workers will become even rarer if training is not available

Whilst some sectors are desperately seeking to recruit trainees, other branches are experiencing an oversupply. The biggest problem, however, is companies which do not provide training and do not offer permanent employment to qualified journeymen. Berlin has a shortage of apprenticeships, whilst Bavaria lacks applicants. Despite record levels of employment, less and less training is taking place. We take a look at the figures shortly after the beginning of the new training year.

Why not train to become an inland bargeman? During your apprenticeship, you will have the opportunity to ferry passengers over Lake Constance or ship freight down the River Rhine. You could then study for a degree in nautical science or work in port construction. Inland bargeman pays the best training allowance of any training occupation in Germany. Trainees also receive top earning opportunities in the occupation of thermal and noise insulation fitter. Budding piano builders can enjoy a modernised training programme that has been introduced with effect from this year.

The future curriculum will include soft skills which aim to prepare trainees to enter self-employment at a later stage. According to the "Deutsche Handwerkszeitung", the newspaper of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts, trainee scaffolders can also earn good money. The only problem is that no one wishes to become a scaffolder. Butcher, cook and waiter are other examples of occupations that nobody seems to fancy.

Young people are predominantly attracted towards higher education. If they do happen to opt for an apprenticeship, then their preference tends to be for something to do with animals, events or the media. There are around 330 training occupations in Germany. Very few young people, however, are prepared to look for the hidden treasures that may be contained in the range of attractive training provision that lies somewhere between the most and least popular occupations. This is a real pity, because there is really nothing wrong with the world of apprenticeships. Or is there?

The societal basis for vocational education and training in Germany is the Vocational Training Act of 1969. Vocational training within the meaning of this law extends to encompass vocational training preparation, vocational education and training itself, continuing and advanced training, and retraining.

No wholesale assessment can be made of the prevailing situation on the German training market. The figures seem to suggest that every young person wishing to enter working life upon completion of schooling has the opportunity to undergo training. According to the latest monthly report produced by the Federal Employment Agency, Germany currently has 512,000 apprenticeship vacancies and the same number of applicants.

Such a figure does not, however, tell us anything about the actual employment ratio. Regardless of the offers that are available on the labour market, school leavers take a conventional and cautious approach when it comes to career choice. They opt for what are popular, that is to say fashionable occupations. And the chances of obtaining a training contract also strongly depend on the place where they happen to live.

In July, Berlin and Bremen had 131 and 164 unplaced applicants respectively for each 100 training places. By way of contrast, only 51 applicants were chasing each 100 vacancies in Bavaria. The corresponding figure for Thuringia was 56. There will be plenty of movement on the training market until the final weeks of summer.

Companies and trainees will come together in many places, supposing that both sides still wish to. This is the third hurdle. As young people flock to the lecture halls of higher education, increasing numbers of companies are ceasing to provide training. And this is despite the fact that labour market demand in Germany is at a record level of 44 million. A study funded by the Bertelsmann Foundation and carried out by the Institute for Sociological Research in Göttingen shows that this applies to small and medium-sized companies in particular.

The ratio between training and employment diverged sharply between 1999 and 2015. During this period, the number of employed staff subject to mandatory social insurance contributions grew by 12.1 percent whereas the number of trainees declined by 6.7 percent. There has been a particularly dramatic collapse in training at the sorts of firms where the craft trades have their origins. The smallest category of company with up to five staff saw a slight fall in numbers of employees (- 3.2 percent).

At the same time, the amount of trainees decreased by a staggering 33.3 percent. In small companies with between six and 49 workers, where according to the study one third of all training is provided, a fall in the training rate of 11.1 percent was accompanied by a rise in employment of 9.2 percent. Medium-sized companies (50 to 249 employees) were the only sort of firm at which training remained stable (+ 11.3 percent). The number of employees at such companies rose by 19.3 percent during the same period. Large companies with over 500 staff are least likely to provide training. According to the study, they only cater for one fifth of all trainees.

The young people most affected by the training problem are those with a lower secondary school leaving certificate. Companies with a strong technological basis in particular tend to call for a higher level of school qualification. Researchers fear that the shift between qualification groups will lead to a withdrawal from training by medium-sized firms and major companies. One in eight persons aged between 20 and 29 is already without a vocational qualification.

"If companies do not train more young people during the current time when the economic and employment situation is favourable, then the subsequent shortage of skilled workers will be our own doing," says Bertelsmann Board Member Jörg Dräger. What needs to be done?

The Bertelsmann Foundation is calling for small companies to be provided with significantly better training support and for the state to fund guaranteed training for school leavers who fail to acquire an apprenticeship. It also suggests fostering geographical flexibility on the part of trainees. What is at stake is nothing less than the loss of dual training, Germany's great "export hit". Springer author Uschi Backes-Gellner describes the benefits of the dual system for innovation in Germany. She states that high-quality innovation occurs when differently qualified development and production workers "all come together at the same place and speak the same professional language".

For this reason, a mixture of higher education graduates and skilled workers can deliver the very highest innovative effects because "improvements and amendments and the quality of such processes frequently arise as a result of hands-on experiences and direct observation in the production process".

Such synergies can, however, only be generated via the systematic development of skilled workers during vocational education and training accompanied by simultaneous implementations of systems for the exchange of knowledge. If small to medium-sized companies continue to abandon the training system, this will weaken Germany's "innovative eco-system". In order to retain the capacity to innovate, the author recommends focusing on individually flexible education and training careers in future rather than on increasing rates of academic qualification.