Tips for apprentices: how to get started with vocational training

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Metal and electrical trainees in Remscheid

The training year has officially started, but around one in three school leavers looking for training has not yet made a decision. The good news: around 200,000 positions are vacant, mathematically more than enough for the around 140,000 young people who are still looking.

This puts future trainees in a good negotiating position. Not only about the place, but also about the conditions, such as salary.

Despite the Corona, the situation is simply good for trainees: It is also not the case that places are only available in certain regions or certain industries. At the end of July, 39,000 apprenticeship positions were still vacant in North Rhine-Westphalia, 38,000 in Bavaria and 29,000 in Baden-Württemberg. And the selection still ranges from bank clerks to IT specialists to retailers and mechatronics technicians.

The normal job search for trainees was slowed down by three months this year, "downright frozen", as Bernd Becking, head of the Berlin employment agency, describes it. Schools were closed, internships and training fairs did not take place.

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Financial tip

Hermann-Josef Tenhagen (born 1963) is editor-in-chief of "Finanztip". The consumer guide is part of the non-profit Finanztip Foundation. "Finanztip" is refinanced via so-called affiliate links. More about it here.

Tenhagen was previously editor-in-chief of the "Finanztest" magazine for 15 years. After studying politics and economics, he began his journalistic career at the "daily newspaper". Today he is an honorary member of the supervisory board of the cooperative. On SPIEGEL.de, Tenhagen writes weekly about how to handle your own money properly.

Berlin is one of the few regions where the apprenticeship positions are a little more selected. But here too there were more than 6,000 apprenticeships at the beginning of August. Only training positions in dual training, i.e. with a company and vocational school, are counted. There are also training opportunities with the police, the tax office, pension insurance and care professions. And if necessary, young people can commute to the surrounding area with the regional and S-Bahn trains.

The overhang of free spaces significantly improves the selection and also makes it easier to change. This is important, because after completing the generalist school, the young people have to commit to a specific issue for the first time. The experience of many training companies: Some people have difficulties getting an apprenticeship through at all. Timo Wille, head of training at Berliner Verkehrsbetreibe BVG, says, for example, about his almost 500 trainees, that there has to be a tendency to be ready for action.

But you should definitely go through with the training. Because training always offers a certain amount of protection against unemployment. In times of crisis, the jobs of those who specialize in an important industry are safer. "Without training also means unemployed very quickly," warns Becking. And the statistics from the employment agency actually show that employees without proper professional training lose their jobs up to five times faster.

The tariff is not generous, but maybe there is something to do with it

In terms of salaries, things are still not looking rosy for the trainees. The statistics show that trainees who are paid according to the tariff in the metal or chemical industry receive an average of between 900 and 1000 euros in the first year. In any case, Lidl is also offering its trainees 1,000 euros in their first year of training in Berlin. But by no means all are paid according to the tariff. And until recently, nursing schools even asked for money instead of paying for training. The government recently responded with a new minimum wage for apprentices.

On the other hand, there are entire industries in which salaries can also be negotiated because the companies cannot find trainees. One example is the craft. There is an urgent search there. If we take Western Pomerania, for example, there are just 61 applicants for 372 vacancies. The hotels on the holiday island of Usedom have again concluded contracts with 30 young people from Vietnam in the crisis year, reports the "Ostsee-Zeitung".

For the trainees themselves, the financial dimension has two facets. On the one hand, the actual apprenticeship wages. In 2019, the Economics and Social Sciences Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation evaluated the salaries of 20 industries. According to this, the wages range "in the first year of training from 325 euros in the hairdressing trade in Brandenburg to 1037 euros in the metal and electrical industry in Baden-Württemberg". Banks and insurance companies, the public sector, the chemical industry and the railways also pay well.

And then it's about the services that the company provides on top of that: money for company pension schemes, capital-forming benefits in addition to wages and grants, a free company cell phone that can also be used privately, or a free ticket for local public transport, alternatively Fuel vouchers. So if you are looking for an apprenticeship position and encounter a desperately looking trainer, you should negotiate salary and extras.

Discounts for trainees

If you can't improve your salary, you still have the chance to turn your expenses. On the other hand, there are many discounts for trainees: cheap local transport tickets, discounts in theaters, cinemas and swimming pools, discounts on memberships in associations or fitness clubs.

There are also sometimes high discounts for young people when it comes to travel: a Bahncard 50 for under 27s, for example, costs only 60.70 euros for the whole year. That is less than the cost of a single ticket from Hamburg to Berlin or from Munich to Würzburg - without a return ticket.

Then there are the costs for the cell phone and all the streaming services. You can get the flat rate for mobile phones for well under ten euros, and many streaming subscriptions can be shared with friends or family. Then, instead of around ten, usually only three euros per month are due.

The costs for your own bank account, on the other hand, are usually not significant at first. The current account is inexpensive or even free of charge at many banks for teenagers and young adults. But if you then need a credit card for your vacation, you often have to pay for it. So change when in doubt! There are enough free offers to choose from.

A free daily money account is also useful to protect the leftover toads and at the end of the year to have actually saved up all the money for the vacation - or the money for your own sofa. If a budget book helps, you should get one urgently. It is now also available in app format for mobile phones.

Apprenticeship position found, running costs reduced, livelihood secured. Then I wish you a successful start to your apprenticeship and good luck in your new job.