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Trainees remain in short supply: The corona pandemic has exacerbated the shortage of skilled workers
Photo: Andreas Gebert / picture alliance / dpa
A number of vacant training positions, hardly any applications: fewer and fewer people are being trained in German companies and administrations.
In 2021, too, the number of newly concluded training contracts was well below the pre-crisis level, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
467,100 new contracts last year meant a slight increase after the historic low of 2020 (465,700).
A rapid recovery of the training market is still not in sight: There is a large gap compared to 2019, when 513,300 young people signed a training contract.
Skilled workers are desperately needed in some areas, for example when it comes to the concrete implementation of climate protection measures in buildings or the expansion of renewable energies.
According to a recent study by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB), around 400,000 additional skilled workers will be needed by 2025 alone for these government plans.
Various construction and finishing trades, mechanical engineers and electrical engineers, but also specialists for ecological agriculture are in demand.
The number of applications has gone down
Overall, companies in Germany are finding it increasingly difficult to fill training positions, as another current study shows.
In a representative survey by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, almost half of the companies stated that the number of applications had fallen.
About 40 percent also reported that the quality of the applications had decreased.
The dual vocational training in the company and vocational school is important in order to secure the need for skilled workers in companies, said IAB Director Bernd Fitzenberger.
“First of all, the prerequisites for this are that they can fill the training positions they offer and that the trainees can successfully complete the training.
Both suffered significantly during the pandemic.« According to the companies surveyed, exams had been postponed or there was simply not enough time to convey the required content under pandemic conditions.
Many companies offered fewer internships
According to the study, it was more difficult for companies to get in touch with potential applicants during the pandemic.
43 percent offered fewer internships or no internships at all for school students - especially the companies that were particularly hard hit by the economic consequences of the pandemic.
According to a study by the state-owned KfW Bank last summer, small companies in particular withdrew from training during the pandemic, while the number of trainees in medium-sized companies with more than 50 employees was often declining.
The small and medium-sized companies are responsible for the training in Germany with around 90 percent of the places on offer.
Nevertheless, only twelve percent of these companies actually train themselves.
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IG Metall board member Hans-Jürgen Urban sees employers as responsible.
"In the metal and electrical industry there are over 10,000 fewer trainees than in the previous year and the decline is not solely due to the pandemic." Employers should finally leverage more potential and train more people.
In addition, the training guarantee anchored in the coalition agreement must be filled with life as quickly as possible in order to prevent many companies from retreating further.
faq/dpa