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Apprentices in a company in Oberhausen (symbolic picture): Companies are desperately looking for good applicants
Photo: Rupert Oberhäuser / picture alliance
From the point of view of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), the situation on the training market has once again deteriorated.
It has never been more difficult for companies to find suitable trainees, said a spokesman with a view to the results of a survey of around 15,000 training companies nationwide.
42 percent of them could not have filled all the training positions offered last year – an all-time high.
In 2018, the figure was 32 percent.
Companies try incentives
More than one in three of the companies surveyed did not receive a single application, it said.
Due to corona-related restrictions, career orientation, career advice and the search for a training place are still considerably more difficult.
Then there is the demographic development.
"The applicant situation is coming to a head," said the deputy DIHK general manager Achim Dercks on Thursday in Berlin.
This can be described with the sentence: "Apprenticeship is looking for an apprentice."
Many companies are reacting to the lack of applicants by trying to make their training more attractive.
This was stated by more than half of the companies in the DIHK survey.
They rely on flat hierarchies (58 percent), modern IT technology (51 percent), financial incentives (37 percent) or projects for trainees (26 percent).
Even the Federal Statistical Office does not record any real upward trend
According to preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office from April, around 467,100 people in Germany concluded a new training contract in dual vocational training last year.
That was 0.3 percent more than in the previous year, which had recorded a historic low with 465,700 training contracts due to the corona pandemic.
On the other hand, Deutsche Bahn (DB) recorded a positive development.
According to the company, more young people than ever have applied for the new training year.
115,000 applications were received, 15 percent more than two years ago, said DB HR Manager Martin Seiler of the AFP news agency.
"A total of 5,200 young people are expected to start their training, studies or qualifications in the DB Group this year - that's also a record."
The DB already abolished cover letters for apprenticeships in 2018 to make the application easier.
But despite the increasing number of applicants, it is also difficult for Deutsche Bahn to fill all the positions.
According to the group, there are still vacant training positions in individual areas, for example for the professions of dispatcher and track builder.
Deutsche Bahn offers around 50 apprenticeships and 25 dual courses of study, and around 200,000 people work for the group.
kah/AFP/dpa