Leading up to the end of August 2012, 294,248 new apprenticeship contracts were registered with the chambers of industry and commerce in Germany. This is 1,071 placements or 0.4 per cent more than in the previous year.
"The good development on the vocational training market continues", commented Hans Heinrich Driftmann, President of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) on the new numbers. In the view of the DIHK, they reflect not only the downward trend in school graduate numbers, but also the increased efforts on the part of enterprises in searching for suitable young skilled labour. "According to our experience, more than 80 per cent of all apprenticeship contracts of the year are concluded by the end of August."
Even after the start of the vocational training year, enterprises continue to urgently search for suitable applicants, said Driftmann. "In the joint apprenticeship placement exchange market of the chambers of industry and commerce alone, there remain open some 10,000 placements for this year. Each day, new offers from all sectors of industry are added, for example, when young people step back from already agreed apprenticeship placements."
The DIHK president recommends that, in addition to using the services provided by the internet exchange platforms, young people who have not yet found a placement ought to use also the offer of joint follow-up placement activities provided by the chambers of industry and commerce and the employment agencies.
By way of personal interviews, these schemes provide unfilled apprenticeship placements or alternatives, such as introductory company qualification trainings. Driftmann said that these company internships continue to be a particularly successful instrument for young people with a weaker performance record and that in 60 per cent of cases they lead to the conclusion of an apprenticeship contract.
In future, they are to be combined with support measures accompanying the vocational training to an even greater degree than was so far the case.