Career opportunities in the skilled trades are as good as rare. Specialists are desperately sought – but not found. Many young people seem to prefer a degree.
Many craft businesses are desperately looking for trainees. According to a survey by the German Confederation of Skilled Trades on the training situation, there is a “blatant shortage of applicants”. The new crafts president Jörg Dittrich told the German Press Agency that the crafts companies would continue to have a great will to train. “But there is a lack of applicants for the vacant apprenticeships.”
The job opportunities are currently better than ever before. “Qualified specialists and managers in the trades will be needed for all modernization tasks in the future,” says Dittrich.
A paper by the association states that the search for trainees is becoming increasingly difficult. The reasons given are the demographic development, the trend towards higher school qualifications as well as the increased inclination to study and a growing interest in training in the care and education sector.
Noticeably worse basic training
In the survey, 27 percent of companies in the skilled trades stated that they provide training. However, without the currently glaring shortage of applicants, this proportion would be significantly higher, it said. Every second craft business stated that it could not find any suitable applicants for open training positions. For example, the reading, writing and arithmetic skills of trainees beginning their training have deteriorated noticeably over the past ten years.
The trade is currently missing several hundred thousand skilled workers. This gap threatens to widen again in the coming years. Dittrich criticized: “Young people in schools and especially in grammar schools have so far only insufficiently experienced how digital, job security and, above all, meaningful the craft is, because there is still no nationwide career orientation on the possibilities of vocational training and further education.”
Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
