The start of training is linked to many hopes: You can finally pursue your passion, start your professional life and learn from professionals.
But how should training work under corona conditions?
At a distance from the trainer because hygiene regulations apply, or completely without practical exercises because the workbench does not fit into the home office?
Those who started their training last autumn can be happy to have found a job at all: The Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) registered eleven percent fewer new training contracts in 2020. And yet the corona pandemic is whirling around the start of professional life confused.
Alina Welker, Sven Zernetsch, Vivienne Schweitzer, Hala
Dakouri and Kevin Fiebig experienced the first few months of their training in a state of emergency.
Here they tell of vocational school teachers in quarantine, the work behind masks and the fear of not getting a full education.
"The longer the shutdown lasts, the more practical knowledge we lack"
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Alina Welker
Photo: private
Alina Welker,
19, attends the vocational school for wood carving and joinery in Berchtesgaden, where she is trained as a sculptor, a purely school-based training.
The practical part actually takes place in the school's workshops, but currently in a shared flat - a frustrating situation for Welker.
»Corona already messed up our entrance exam in March.
We only had to submit a folder with pictures of the work, the theoretical and practical entrance exams and the job interview were canceled.
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The apprenticeship started in September, and I've hardly been there since.
Due to the high number of cases, Berchtesgaden had to go into a local shutdown shortly before the autumn holidays, I myself was in quarantine for four weeks after a roommate tested positive, and now nothing works again.
In contrast to traditional training, we also learn practical experience in the workshops of the school, not in a company - which means that around 70 percent of our training content is currently falling away: Crafts do not go online.
At home in our shared rooms we don't have enough space and hardly any tools.
We are not allowed to carve for insurance reasons, and we would also need workbenches, but they certainly don't fit in here.
The school really tries very hard, we now work with cardboard, plaster and clay instead of wood, we draw and design.
Our master evaluates our progress online, we get theory lessons via video conferences.
If we need new materials, we can order them from the school and pick them up there.
"I also miss the traditions and rituals at our school."
Alina Welker
It is even worse with the carpenters, they can hardly work from home.
The longer the shutdown lasts, the more practical knowledge we lack.
I am afraid that our training will be less valuable in the end, that it will be more difficult for us to find a job or that it will be difficult for us to be admitted to master academies.
At the beginning of January, we joined forces with seven other vocational schools in Bavaria that offer purely school-based training, and we drew attention to our situation in an open letter to the Ministry of Culture.
We would like a differentiated view, we just cannot return to companies like other apprentices and work on machines there.
Although that is really the slightest problem at the moment, I still miss the traditions and rituals at our school.
Normally, the second grades organize the so-called Einserlauf, a kind of scavenger hunt for beginners - a debut we never had.
I worry that such traditions that shape the face of the school will die out because of Corona. "
"Sometimes I am easily distracted, that's a problem"
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Sven Zernetsch
Photo: private
Sven Zernetsch,
16,
completed an apprenticeship as a retail salesman at BOC in Mainaschaff.
The company currently only sells bikes, accessories and clothing online due to the lockdown.
Workshops are allowed to be open - that is Zernetsch's great luck.
“After my first few days of training, I just fell into bed in the evening, I didn't even have dinner.
It was just incredibly exhausting to stand all day, wearing a mask all the time and having trouble breathing.
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At the beginning I learned how to label goods and which shelves I have to put them on.
I still noticed a little about the boom in the bicycle industry in the summer months, especially e-bikes were in great demand with our customers.
I myself only had a few sales calls at the beginning, but I learned, for example, that it is important to ask open-ended questions.
So: 'How can I help you?' And not: 'Can I help you?' It's a shame that I can't practice this anymore because of the shutdown.
We trainees are not affected by short-time working.
At the moment we are mainly working in the workshop, assembling bikes, learning how they work and sending out online orders.
I ride Enduro, a type of mountain bike, myself and have a lot of technical understanding.
"After the shutdown, the material will still be queried and I have to have it on."
Sven Zernetsch
On Tuesdays and Fridays, the vocational school takes place online via video lessons.
I get easily distracted sometimes, that's a problem.
I also miss being able to simply ask the person sitting next to me how they solve a task.
In the past you could lean over the table, now I would have to give him a special call.
But one thought motivates me: After the shutdown, the material is still queried and I have to have it ready.
I'm not afraid of the future.
Bicycles are in demand and I work for a large company that hopefully can handle the shutdown a little better.
I'm glad I didn't start with a small family bike shop in our town, they have to fight harder. "
"I was really lucky"
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Vivienne Schweitzer
Photo: private
Vivienne Schweitzer
, 22, is in the first year of her apprenticeship as a hotel manager with an additional qualification in hotel management at the four-star themed hotel »Arthus« in Aulendorf in Baden-Württemberg.
Because fewer guests are coming, she has more time to get to know all the processes.
»When I started my apprenticeship in September, we were still operating almost normally, but of course the number of seats in the restaurant had already been reduced.
Normally 125 people fit in our historic vaulted cellar, 45 in the knight's room. Our guests could book the medieval knight's meal there before the shutdown, with traditional toasts from the cupbearer, hospitality by maids and a fire show.
All of that has been canceled since November.
Now we only accommodate business travelers, we prepare breakfast for trainees in the kitchen and bring it directly to the room.
Longer interpersonal conversations are not possible because of the distance rules and masks.
The shutdown also has advantages: We trainees - there are a total of 13 in my hotel - have more time to get to know the various areas.
In the case of high occupancy, everyone would first be assigned to an area of responsibility to support them, for example at the reception or in the breakfast area.
Now we can all switch and get to know the processes in a more balanced way.
"Our teachers send us the recipes, but it's hard to cook them at home."
Vivienne Schweitzer
I am currently in the vocational school's block lessons, of course only via video call.
I can learn theoretical content such as the management parts of my additional training and the foreign languages English, Spanish and French so well.
In the first year of our apprenticeship, however, we ›HoFas‹ are actually trained together with the chefs; the practical teaching units on service and gastronomy cannot take place now.
Our teachers send us the recipes, but it's really difficult to cook them at home without instructions and the right equipment.
In my vocational school class, a few lost their training positions because of the crisis.
I was really lucky: a few years ago, my hotel founded its own academy for us trainees, where we learn even more in addition to practical work and school, also from invited experts.
There are, for example, seminars on the right pairing of wines with meals or creating a menu card.
In the IHK final exam, we later have to cope with various tasks from everyday hotel and catering business.
I have the feeling that my company is well prepared for this.
"I had to write about 60 applications"
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Hala Dakouri
Photo: private
Hala Dakouri,
24,
is trained as an e-commerce clerk at Profishop.
The company from
Bremen
supplies companies with industrial goods - from paper clips and cable drums to excavators.
Dakouri is happy to have a job in the corona pandemic that also works from
home
.
»I never expected to find an apprenticeship position in 2020 - while so many people are worried about their jobs.
I also had to write about 60 applications before I was successful.
On the day I was accepted, I was so happy, I was so happy in my life only after we arrived in Germany: my family and I fled Syria five years ago.
When I was 19, I graduated from high school and started studying environmental sciences, then switched to chemical engineering in Germany.
But I didn't like that.
I felt lonely at university.
I had to do with other migrants, but hardly with Germans.
Things are going better at vocational school now.
Because many apprenticeships were already taken, I didn't join the class until the beginning of October, one month after the official start of the apprenticeship.
Nevertheless, the others invited me straight to their WhatsApp group.
I call the second trainee from my company almost every day - and we don't just chat about our work.
At the beginning of October we were still sitting with 33 people without masks in the vocational school class, in mid-October the classes were then divided.
At the beginning of November, I had to be quarantined for two weeks because a classmate was infected with Corona - but nobody was infected.
Since then I have been learning and working entirely from home.
"I haven't settled in yet."
Hala Dakouri
Fortunately, I can do my training as an e-commerce clerk from home.
My contact person in the company explains everything to me, I can simply share my screen.
There are also digital guides to our processes.
There was only one problem in the vocational school: we should think of our own online shop, think of a name and which products we want to sell.
I didn't have the instructions - either the vocational school teacher was in quarantine or I was.
What makes me sad: I moved to Bremen for my training, but I haven't settled in yet.
I move within a radius of five kilometers from my apartment - I know the school, my employer, the train station and Netto and Aldi.
It's a shame that the other trainees can't show me their city or that we can't go for a drink.
I very much hope that this will be possible again in the second year of training at the latest. "
"There would be no time for that in normal operation"
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Kevin Fiebig
Photo: Romantikhotel Deutsches Haus
Kevin Fiebig
, 16, is being trained as a chef in the restaurant of the four-star hotel »Deutsches Haus« in Pirna, Saxony.
Because guests are not allowed to eat on site due to the shutdown, the trainees are cooking menus to take away.
»We are five apprentices in our company, two of them in their first year of training.
We started at the end of August, normally shortly afterwards the time for the Christmas parties and major events would have started.
Instead, the majority of the workforce is on short-time work.
I usually work five to six hours a day.
First we clean the kitchen, then - if there are orders - we cook the trainee menu.
We thought about that ourselves.
It consists of beetroot salad with horseradish, roast pork with dumplings and apple sauerkraut, and cake.
Because we are not allowed to entertain guests in the guest room, we sell the menu to take away.
During the Christmas season we had ten to twelve orders a day, currently there are only two to three.
Sometimes we have business travelers as guests, the other day a film team was in town.
But there isn't much else to do.
"We only get theoretical exercises sent home and have to solve them alone."
Kevin Fiebig
It's a shame that I missed the Christmas season and the stress, and I could have learned a lot from it.
On the other hand, this leaves more time for direct instruction and lessons from the chef.
We recently cooked the entire trainee menu together twice.
There wouldn't be time for that in normal operation, and it's really fun.
It is different in vocational school.
We only get theoretical tasks sent home and have to solve them alone; there are no practical lessons or video lessons.
A lot is lost, and I also miss social issues and contact with trainees from other companies.
Now sometimes I write to someone when I don't understand a task.
But you can't really get to know each other like that. "
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