Fewer and fewer school graduates and increasing numbers of young people not completing their apprenticeship: this is too much in the eyes of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. It advocates the creation of sufficient apprenticeship placements in particular for young people with a migration background.
A pilot project titled "Assisted vocational education and training" now supports small and medium-sized businesses in achieving this goal. Already 17 of these pilot projects have been launched across the Federal Republic of Germany.
Project manager Sabine Steinert entertains a pragmatic view, "We have too many applicants who land only in the transitional system and fail to directly obtain a position with the enterprises. Conversely, the enterprises urgently want apprentices but cannot find any."
The project aims at an improved balance between the requirements on part of the enterprises on the one hand and the wishes of the young people on the other. "We act as a mediator between the enterprise and the applicant and attempt to initially join these in a work placement, so that they enter into an apprenticeship agreement at a later stage."
Even after such an agreement has been entered into, the coordinators remain contact persons for the apprentice to avoid premature drop-outs and to observe their progress at the vocational school.
In Berlin-Wedding, 15 apprentices presently undergo an assisted apprenticeship, in very disparate occupations ranging from wholesale and foreign trader to painter and varnisher. The young people are between 17 and 25 years of age. Some have left school already one or two years previously, have attended various courses at sixth form centres and vocational preparation schemes.
Bring young people directly to the enterprises
However, all these efforts usually failed to produce a tangible result. "Our main goal is to actually break that pattern. We want to really bring these young people directly to the enterprises and this requires a high degree of mediation and coaching on both sides", explains Steinert.
18-year-old Bacheer intends to do an apprenticeship to become a painter and varnisher. The young man is particularly impressed by how structured the programme is, "From the very beginning you have tasks, a check list you have to complete. For example, maths, German, English you continue to study at school. I think this is really good."
As yet, things have not turned out so well for 18-year-old Fehda with an Arab migration background, but she remains optimistic. In 2011, she completed the 10th grade with her General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). "Since last year, I have been trying to find an apprenticeship placement to train as a health care nurse and have applied almost everywhere." Yet in spite of good marks she so far has failed to obtain a position with an enterprise in this field.
Eventually, the jobcentre sent her to join the assisted vocational education and training scheme. "By now I know far better where my strengths lie. Moreover, I have learned how to behave during a job interview", says Fehda. The programme helped her to reconsider her career aspirations. Now she has changed her mind and searches for a position as a social and human service assistant, and this time she reckons she has a good chance of being successful.