As of: February 29, 2024, 10:42 a.m
By: Felicitas Breschendorf
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There is a shortage of around 20,000 trainees in Germany.
Associations disagree about whether schools need to do anything about it.
It is the largest shortage of trainees in 30 years: German companies have hired slightly more trainees by the end of November 2023 than in the previous year, as the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH) reports.
At the same time, around 20,000 apprenticeship positions remained unfilled.
In order to fill apprenticeships, the craft association is calling for “comprehensive career guidance”
The ZDH sees a central challenge in filling training positions in the lack of knowledge among many young people about educational and career opportunities in the skilled trades.
The association is therefore calling for nationwide career guidance at all types of schools, including high schools.
Anja Bensinger-Stolze, board member of the Union for Education and Business (GEW), also wants “high-quality career guidance in all schools”.
She told
BuzzFeed News Germany,
a portal from
Ippen.Media
.
She justifies this with the high number of young people who are neither studying nor in training.
According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, in 2023 there were around 850,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 24.
“Interest in vocational training has been high for years and, contrary to some assumptions, is relatively stable,” says Bensinger-Stolze.
Do students no longer want to get an education?
(Symbolic image) © IMAGO / Westend61
High schools should offer career guidance from the 8th grade onwards
According to the GEW board, the practical work experiences of students need to improve.
“Internships must be accompanied and evaluated.
To do this, teachers at schools need resources.
Companies also have to prepare well for interns.
Then the students can develop career choice skills.”
Like the ZDH, Bensinger-Proud sees particular scope for action at high schools.
She believes that “career orientation from grade 8 onwards” makes sense.
“Study orientation often only takes place in high school.
It is therefore urgently necessary to provide binding requirements for career orientation and practical times for upper secondary schools in all federal states.”
This is an article from BuzzFeed News Germany.
We are part of the IPPEN.MEDIA network.
All articles from
BuzzFeed News Germany
can be found here .
Is the shortage of skilled workers to blame for the lack of trainees, not the high schools?
The German Association of Philologists (DPhV) rejects the introduction of the school subject “career orientation” in high schools, as the Göttingen employment agency had demanded in July 2023.
Chairwoman Susanne Lin-Klitzing also refers to the Bertelsmann study 2023, which shows that even without the subject, almost half of high school graduates (47.4 percent) choose dual or vocational training.
Lin-Klitzing sees the reason why there are so many trainees missing in the aging society: fewer and fewer young people are coming.
This is already leading to a shortage of skilled workers.
“There is a shortage of future workers in every area, both academic and vocational,” Lin-Klitzing tells
BuzzFeed News Germany.
In general, the Association of Philologists considers career orientation to be important: “The task of the high school is to provide professional orientation in addition to imparting in-depth general education, scientific preparation and general study skills.” In contrast to the GEW, high schools do enough, according to the DPhV.
For example, she mentions the subject of economics/law, which exists in Bavaria, as well as “numerous collaborations and internships in all federal states”.
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(
With material from dpa
)