Trainees benefit from assisted education and training

There is increasing interest among companies and young people in the model of assisted apprentice training for weaker trainees which was launched last year by the Federal Employment Agency (FEA).

According to FEA information, 4,800 young people have already benefited from the project in the first six months. The Federal Employment Agency had provided 5,400 places for the 2015/2016 training year.

In the case of assisted education and training, the young person and the training company are in most cases supported by a vocational training centre. Trainees who would not be able to complete the training alone due to learning difficulties are assisted in this by a professional mentoring team.

They receive coaching three times a week as a result. The mentors also step in if there are problems in the company; they help with examination stress and make sure the young people arrive on time. They also intervene to clarify issues if the number of times a trainee calls in sick is conspicuously high. Contact with the family of the young person is important here.

"We have great hopes for the assisted education and training tool. And the numbers entering to date have also given us grounds for real optimism," commented a spokesperson for the Federal Employment Agency, adding, however, that information on the drop-out rate was not yet available.

The Federal Employment Agency intends to promote the model more heavily in the coming months, particularly among employers. Information provided states that, in view of the high number of training places remaining unfilled, companies cannot afford to "go without valuable potential of young people — even if this fails to conform with ideals at first glance."

A spokesperson for the agency reported that the federal states are also now showing increasing interest in the project. She commented that Saxony-Anhalt was currently involved at this stage with funding from the state budget and that discussions were underway with the Hamburg Senate.

She added that other federal states such as Bavaria and Saxony were planning their own concepts, and that there is also interest from others, but in some cases there was a lack of funding here for the costly supervision of apprentices.

Many trainees do not drop out of their training due to a lack of interest in the work, but instead due to frustration at the poor culture communication in the company. According to this investigation, 142,000 training contracts were terminated early in Germany in 2015. This is equivalent to a ratio of almost one quarter.

Trainees placed in small and micro businesses, which provide around 44 per cent of training places, often drop out. The investigation states that these companies are under enormous commercial pressure, have only minimal financial and personnel scope for organising the training and are often very hierarchically structured. In the case of a dispute there is often "nothing to come between" trainee and the trainer.

As part of the study, 23 external training experts who provide support and advice to trainees and companies on a full-time basis, both generally and specifically in conflict cases, were questioned in twelve locations across the entire country. Qualitative, structured interviews were conducted.