Image problems and Corona
The search for trainees has come to a halt
2/7/2022 11:51 am
A stack of applications from trainees – many companies can only dream of that. Since the pandemic, it has become even more difficult to fill apprenticeship positions. But a model from Baden-Württemberg gives hope.
In the kitchen, at reception or in service – young people should actually be everywhere in the Mercure Hotel Stuttgart Airport Messe. However, there is a wide gap between desire and reality in hotel director Gürkan Gür’s plan. There is a lack of trainees, and quite a few. Gür would like to offer training to 10 to 15 people next August or September. But he is still a long way from that.
“The search is difficult. Today we have to chase after the young people,” says Gür. He currently has four applications on the table. “We used to be able to pick the raisins from the applicants, now I’m happy about every application,” says the 52-year-old.
Muhammet Karatas from the IHK Region Stuttgart is supposed to help him. As a so-called training scout, he advises companies free of charge and promotes the creation of more training places. Karata’s goal is to reach at least 200 companies by the end of the year. “Due to Corona, many companies are training fewer or no longer at all,” says Karatas. The reason for this is, among other things, the existential fears of the entrepreneurs. “Many are also wondering what will happen to the trainees if a company doesn’t make it through the pandemic,” says the 44-year-old. Gür is already one step further, because he wants to train more.
Training scouts help with the search
What else can Gur do? In the hotel restaurant, the two discuss possible next steps. According to Gür, job advertisements and social media have so far not brought the desired success. Karatas invites the hotel manager to a training fair planned for March. “Those with poorer school grades can present themselves better than on paper,” he explains. The IHK’s job placement service could also be successful.
But: According to Karatas, it will take time for all the seats to be occupied. Among other things, Baden-Württemberg wants to curb the shortage of skilled workers with the training scouts. The ministry is paying around 262,000 euros for this and is promoting five full-time and two part-time positions at various institutions. State Minister of Economics Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut expects that more school leavers will be looking for a place from the 2022 training year because many would have held back in 2020 and 2021.
Hotel director Gür is not an isolated case – and the problem is not limited to Baden-Württemberg. According to a study by the Nuremberg Institute for Employment Research (IAB), almost 40 percent of the places in the current training year have not been allocated nationwide by September. The number of applications has been falling for some time, but the decline has increased again due to the corona pandemic, says the head of the institute, Bernd Fitzenberger. “The existing high level of uncertainty about future developments means that many young people tend to stay longer in the school system”. Many school leavers would also go to university for the same reason.
Corona also cancels internships
The Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) points out that the low number of applicants is also related to the falling number of school leavers due to the lower birth rates. Even if a student is interested in an apprenticeship, career advice, internships and training fairs have mostly been canceled due to Corona. But Fitzenberger considers these things to be important. “Before they finish school, young people only have very incomplete ideas about their professional inclinations and professional skills,” explains the head of the institute.
According to the Federal Employment Agency, 27,100 applicants were still without a training place in January 2022, despite more training places than applicants. This imbalance is related, among other things, to differences between career and location preferences and advertised positions, as well as a lack of qualifications. Karatas considers what he believes to be the bad image of training occupations to be one reason for the low number of applicants. “Many young people don’t know the opportunities that an apprenticeship offers,” he says.
The Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH) is also struggling with image problems, especially in the case of skilled trades. “Only with enough trainees will we have the specialists we urgently need in the future,” warns the association. Hotel director Gür hopes that refugees and people with a migration background will apply for his apprenticeship positions. But here, too, he first had to find suitable applicants through the so-called company entry qualification, a long internship. “Now it’s time to step on the gas,” says Gür.