topic Education

The Training Pact wants to offer all young people opportunities for vocational training

The survey also shows, however, that despite the double Abitur year groups and the discontinuation of military and alternative civilian service, demographic change is a reality, particularly in the new Bundesländer. Securing an adequate number of training and qualification positions for all interested and able young people is a declared goal of the Federal Government. This applies for high and low achievers alike. This is the only way to secure Germany's demand for qualified workers.

A summary of the latest developments in the training market can be found here, and further details of the survey can be found on the BIBB website.

The Training Pact

Federal Minister Annette Schavan at the BIBB Vocational Training Congress. Source: BIBB/ESEven though the provision of an adequate number of traineeships falls primarily to the private sector, the Federal Government believes it is the responsibility of the state to contribute to securing sufficient training and qualification opportunities. In June 2004, the Federal Government, together with the central associations of the private sector, agreed on the "National Pact for Career Training and Skilled Manpower Development in Germany," which provides more in-company training as well as additional efforts from the public sector. 

On 26 October 2010, the steering committee for the National Pact for Career Training and Skilled Manpower Development, in accordance with the coalition agreement for the 17th legislative period, agreed to extend the Training Pact until 2014, with the stipulation of new areas of focus and the inclusion of new partners. These new partners include the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) as well as the Federal Commissioner for Migration, Refugees and Integration.

Fundamental changes from the initial situation in 2004 have had a significant impact in the further development of the Pact's content. Rather than a lack of instructors, demographic change has led in the meantime to a lack of applicants. At the same time, there is still a considerable number of applicants who do not immediately manage the transition from school to training. This includes previously unplaced applicants, as well as young people with migration backgrounds, social disadvantages, learning difficulties, and disabilities.

Under the motto "Tapping All Potential," the new Training Pact wants to offer these young people in particular stronger opportunities for vocational training. Above all, this means improving the maturity of Hauptschule and Realschule students early on, intensely supporting struggling youth, providing young people in the transitional system with real qualification opportunities that have career prospects, and advancing the integration of youth with migration backgrounds in training.

Central measures of the new pact agreement include the new BMBF initiative "Qualify and Connect - the education chain up to qualification" with a total budget of 360 million euros, which works towards qualitative improvement of the transition from school to dual training through a comprehensive package of measures. The private sector has also committed 10,000 in-business introductory training places yearly to support young people in need of assistance (EQ Plus).
To secure the demand for skilled workers, the new pact agreement also aims to encourage more high-achieving youth to take up vocational training. With the help of the KMK and the Integration Commissioner, the implementation of planned measures can now be carried out in a more targeted way for both high achieving young people, and for those who need extra support.

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  topic Education

  JOBSTARTER: Funding Innovation in Vocational Training

  The Federal Ministry of Education and Research has been supporting the development of Germany's training structure through its JOBSTARTER programme for over four years now. Over 280 innovative projects are being funded. All these projects are helping to create additional traineeships and are offering various measures to support companies which either have no previous experience with training or which have grown weary of providing training. The JOBSTARTER projects have secured around 56,700 training positions to date, 39,000 of which have already been suitably filled.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/2313.php)