DGB study: every eighth trainee is not trained at all

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Budding hotel professionals rate their training particularly badly

They get flowers for the boss's mother-in-law, clean the toilets or mop the floor in the office kitchen - every eighth apprentice regularly has to take on activities that are not part of the training, and one in ten is never or only rarely instructed by a trainer. Many do not even know what they are actually supposed to learn: every third person has no company training plan, although this is required by law. This emerges from the training report of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), for which more than 13,000 apprentices of the 25 most common training occupations were surveyed.

One in six said they could not recommend the training in their company to others. It is noticeable that the enthusiasm of many declines in the course of the apprenticeship years: While almost 71 percent would recommend their training in the first year of training, it is only just over half in the last year of training.

Hardly anyone can afford their own apartment

Almost 60 percent of those questioned stated that they could live "less well" or "not at all" from the training allowance. One in three said they received financial support from their parents or acquaintances, and one in ten had a part-time job in addition to their training. The remuneration of trainees varies greatly depending on the industry and region. On average across all apprenticeship years and industries, the respondents stated that they receive 836 euros per month - that is more than 100 euros less than the average collectively regulated training allowance.

Two thirds of the respondents (65 percent) would like to live in their own apartment. In fact, more than 70 percent still live with their parents or other relatives. The DGB therefore demands the construction of state-subsidized apprentice apartments: "For young people, the step into training is a step towards independence and independence from their parents. Affordable living space is an absolute must for this step," says the report .

But there are also positive developments: the number of trainees who regularly have to work overtime has fallen from 42 percent in 2009 to 34 percent. And just under twelve percent of those surveyed received no compensation for this extra work. In 2010, this value was still 20 percent.

However, the differences between the apprenticeships are still large: of the hotel specialists and chefs surveyed, one in two said they regularly have to work longer hours - on average, more than five hours a week.

In the overall assessment, too, the training of hotel professionals came off particularly badly. Dental workers, plant mechanics for plumbing, heating and air conditioning, salespeople and painters and varnishers were similarly dissatisfied with their apprenticeship. Prospective industrial mechanics, administrative clerks, mechatronics technicians, electronics technicians for industrial engineering and bank clerks rated their training the best.

The larger the company, the happier the trainees

According to the training report, the following principle applies: the larger the company, the more satisfied the trainees are. This is probably due to "good personnel and material prerequisites", write the authors: In large companies, for example, works councils ensure compliance with legal requirements. "Small and very small businesses, on the other hand, are often faced with the challenge of having to react flexibly to supply and demand with few staff."

This could get worse in the corona crisis. The report quotes a budding hearing care professional who called for help online at the DGB at the end of April: Your company has registered short-time work, "which means that my foreman is only there for half the day and as an apprentice I have to manage the business alone for the remaining half day".

More about the study

Who Was Interviewed? Up Arrow Down Arrow

For the study, 13,347 trainees in the 25 most frequently chosen training occupations were surveyed. Compared to the previous year, the composition of the 25 professions has changed slightly. Specialist salespeople in the food trade are no longer among the 25 most common apprenticeships. The specialist warehouse clerks have also joined the company.

When were the trainees interviewed? Up arrow Down arrow

The young people were interviewed from August 2019 to March 2020. The survey of the trainees took place predominantly during the vocational school tours of the union youth. These are educational offers for pupils from high school centers and vocational schools. The survey was carried out in writing.

Which criteria were included in the overall assessment? Up arrow Down arrow

Four criteria were taken into account in the overall evaluation of the training: "Technical quality of training in the company", "Training times and overtime", "Training remuneration", "Personal assessment of the training quality". All criteria are included in the ranking with the same weighting.

How meaningful are the results? Up arrow Down arrow

In order to ensure the comparability of the information, only survey data from trainees who are in company training (dual system) were included in the sample. In order to compensate for distortions in the overall presentation due to the over- or underrepresentation of individual occupations in the sample, the individual occupations were weighted in the evaluations according to their actual proportion of trainees. Due to the high number of respondents, the significance of the results is assured.

Even before Corona, many trainees complained of a high workload: Almost 25 percent of those surveyed said that they would not be able to recover properly after their training. "Where things went badly before, things will hardly get better in the crisis," says DGB youth secretary Manuela Conte - and warns that companies must ensure that the trainees receive the necessary learning content, even with short-time work.

Even before the crisis, the future prospects were bad for many trainees: Even in the last year of training, every third person did not know whether he or she would be taken on by the training company. And of the third-year apprentices who already knew that they would not be taken on, only 14 percent had a commitment to continue working in another company.

The chances of being hired depend to a large extent on the respective training occupation: almost 72 percent of all administrative clerks surveyed and 61 percent of the mechatronics technicians surveyed had already been promised continued employment. It was only 20 percent for hairdressers, almost 25 percent for salespeople and 26 percent for hotel professionals.