There are enough training places and staff is in demand. Nevertheless, almost one in five young people in Germany does not have a vocational qualification – for various reasons.
Whether in geriatric care or in the skilled trades: qualified workers are desperately needed. One untapped potential that could narrow this gap is young adults. But they are increasingly left without a professional qualification. The Federal Statistical Office recently found that 2.86 million 20 to 34-year-olds had no formal qualifications in 2022. This corresponds to almost a fifth of the age group and represents a new high. A year earlier it was 2.64 million or 17.8 percent. The figures come from a draft of the new vocational training report for 2024, which is available to the “Handelsblatt” and the German Press Agency and which the Federal Cabinet will approve in a few weeks.
“The number of young people without a professional qualification is apparently continuing to rise unabated,” said Elke Hannack, deputy chairwoman of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB). Brigitte Schels, labor market expert from the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB), has also been observing the problem for a long time: “The fact that more and more young people are unable to hold a vocational qualification is a trend that has been emerging for some time.”
Labor shortage: Vacancies for trained people
It’s not because of demand. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the IAB counted almost 1.73 million job vacancies nationwide. However, at most a quarter of them are suitable for unskilled workers. Around 60 percent of the vacancies are intended for people with a training qualification and for almost 20 percent of the positions to be filled, applicants require a degree.
Just looking at these numbers shows that vocational training plays a central role in solving the increasing labor and skilled labor shortage. “For many qualified positions, professional training is the basic requirement for filling them,” says Schels in an interview with Capital. “But it is also the foundation for a secure income and a stable working career.” People without training or a degree are at risk of below-average earnings and low pensions. They would also have a significantly increased risk of becoming unemployed and remaining unemployed in the long term.
Supply and demand exceed the number of training contracts
According to labor market expert Schels, the reasons why training fails for so many young adults are complex. She names three reasons: “We have a consistently high proportion of young people in Germany who finish school without a school leaving certificate.” This is still one of the essential prerequisites for chances of getting an apprenticeship. “If you don’t manage to take the first step, it won’t be any easier for you later,” says Schels.
In addition, companies and those seeking training meet less and less often. According to the results of the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB), a total of 489,200 new training contracts were concluded in the 2023 reporting year. At the same time, 73,400 training positions remained unfilled, although 63,700 young people were still looking. “Supply and demand do not match because young people and young adults are interested in careers other than what the training market offers,” explains Schels. According to BIBB figures, there is a large range of trade apprenticeships on offer, such as plumbing, reinforced concrete construction or scaffolding, but companies would hardly find any applicants. In other training occupations, such as nursing, interior decorator or florist, there are more interested parties than available places. The training offering also varies regionally.
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Another factor that contributes to the high number of unskilled young people is refugee migration. “Among the young people who have come to Germany in recent years, many have no training qualifications,” said Schels. Refugees and immigrants sometimes come from countries that have a completely different education system, where there is no in-company training or where apprenticeships are only of marginal importance. An unfamiliar system and language barriers are just two reasons why refugees have a difficult time finding training.
Professional qualification thanks to a training guarantee?
In order to integrate the unskilled into the training and labor market, various measures are necessary. The federal government also knows this when it introduced the training guarantee on April 1st: Anyone who cannot find a training place in the company has the right to training outside the company since April 1st. It should last 24 to 42 months and end with a fully qualified and formally equivalent professional qualification.
IAB expert Schels also believes that the training guarantee is a good and important step that could make a key contribution to enabling more young people to obtain a vocational qualification. But the solutions are as complex as the causes of the high number of unskilled workers. “Young people first need to know about their diverse options,” says Schels. Internships and school career orientation offerings could help you find out which career suits you.
And once you have signed a training contract with a company, you then have to persevere. Help accompanying training in vocational schools and companies or modularized training with smaller intermediate steps could help.
Source: Stern
