The best insurance against job loss is a good education. Of course, this also applies to those who are already working. There are enough opportunities to keep up with progress - in most federal states there is even a legal right to educational leave. But those who continue their vocational training in Germany depend heavily on their origins.
Immigrants use offers much less often than people without a migration background. This is the result of a new study by the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency in Nuremberg.
While 31 percent of non-immigrant workers participated in at least one training course from 2013 to 2015, immigrants accounted for only 20 percent. According to the researchers, the reason for this is that migrants of the first generation often only practice helper work.
In the second generation of immigrants it already looks quite different: Of the employees with a migrant background, in which at least one parent immigrated, participated in the period studied 33 percent of further training in women, the rate was even 35 percent.
More individual, more flexible, more practical language courses required
Also lack of language skills of immigrants may make it difficult to get ahead in the profession sometimes. However, the existing offers for language courses are sometimes insufficient for the Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertags (DIHK). Chief Executive Martin Wansleben, called for more flexibility.
The regular language courses according to the specifications of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees were usually not sufficient for everyday working life, lamented Wansleben. "It would make more sense to have more classes in small groups, subsidized private lessons and online services such as webinars." All in all, it is important to make the language courses more flexible in terms of space and time, as well as more practical in terms of content. "
According to Wansleben, 16 percent of the apprentices in Germany are refugees. "Successful vocational training is a very good way for young fledgling companies to become skilled workers in the future," he said. A so-called education toleration allows refugees to switch to regular employment in Germany for two years after three years of training.
However, companies would have to be able to rely on a uniform and transparent administrative practice, demanded Wansleben. "Unfortunately, aliens authorities set different criteria when granting the two-year stay," he lamented. "This concerns in particular the language level as a condition for the issue of this residence permit."