Including the 3,726 new apprentices in inter-company training (minus 15.3 percent), the total increase was 4.6 percent. Tourism and the leisure industry grew the most with an increase of 32.1 percent. The number of new apprentices also increased sharply in the information and consulting sector (plus 21.7 percent), in the transport and traffic sector (plus 13.3 percent), in trade (plus 7 percent) and in trade and crafts (up 6.8 percent).
On the other hand, there were significantly fewer apprenticeship trainees than a year ago in banks and insurance companies, where a noticeable decline of 7.9 percent was recorded.
Effects of the corona lockdowns still visible
The Chamber of Commerce stated that the total number of apprentices still reflected the effects of the corona lockdowns in some hard-hit sectors over all years of training. All in all, the number of apprentices in Austria remained stable at 94,357 (previous year: 94,219) (+0.1 percent). Including all 7,033 apprentices in inter-company training, the number of which fell by 10 percent within a year, there were 101,390 apprentices at the end of March – 645 people or 0.6 percent fewer than on the same date last year.
Tourism and the leisure industry are currently training 8.6 percent fewer apprentices across all training years than a year ago. It is 7 percent less for banks and insurance companies and 2.3 percent less for industry. On the other hand, there are noticeably more people in apprenticeship training in the information and consulting sector (plus 5.6 percent). The trades and crafts sector recorded slight growth (plus 1 percent). The number of apprentices in trade is almost unchanged (plus 0.3 percent).
Kühnel: “It’s definitely going uphill”
“Apprenticeship training is clearly leaving the consequences of the pandemic behind, things are clearly going uphill, as the large increase in apprenticeships of 7.8 percent and the increase in the total number of 0.1 percent prove,” said the Deputy Secretary General of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ), Mariana Kühnel. However, it appears that it is still difficult to recruit apprentices. “The growth could be significantly higher if the companies could find enough suitable apprentices. At the moment, the AMS has registered more than 15,000 more open training places than there are currently looking for an apprenticeship.”
The apprenticeship gap has widened over the past twelve months. The so-called mathematical overhang of apprenticeships has increased by 56 percent to 15,185 compared to March 2021. According to the Chamber of Commerce, there is currently a surplus of vacancies in all federal states – except Vienna – compared to the number of applicants. And in the federal capital, too, the “apprenticeship gap” has recently shrunk considerably.
In 2021, 5,114 people would have passed a master craftsman or qualification exam – an increase of more than 18 percent compared to 2020 (4,318 people), but also compared to 2019 (4,366) and 2018 (3,904).
“Green Skills” on the rise
According to the WKÖ, when looking at the long-term developments in individual job profiles, it is striking that “particularly job profiles that have gained in importance in the area of ”green skills” in recent years show above-average growth rates”, for example in the areas of heating technology, electrical engineering or gas and Sanitary Engineering.
“Right now Austria as a location needs qualified entrepreneurs and well-trained employees in order to be able to cope with the current challenges posed by the climate change, but also by the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine,” says the chairwoman of the WKÖ federal division of trade and Crafts, Renate Scheichelbauer-Schuster.
Source: Nachrichten
