The situation as far as apprenticeships and
work for young
people in Germany are concerned is the worst for decades. Eleven years
ago two thirds of all applicants got a
training place, today the figure
is not even one in two. The major reason for this shocking figure
can be traced back to the poor level of education. With
increasing qualifications the risk of being unemployed falls. But
achieving these qualifications is becoming ever harder - this can
currently be seen in the example of the final
school examination.
Before, passing year ten meant you got the secondary school
certificate. Now you have to sit a written exam and this is a reason
for even more unemployment. More should also be invested in the
school system as schools often have insufficient teachers and teaching
materials. This leads to overcrowded classes. "133 trainee
teachers have taught in Frankfurt school this year. None have
been appointed - despite the fact that there are 295 unfilled places
for the coming school year" (Frankfurter Rundschau 19.6.04). This has
the further effect that students cannot recieve individual
attention. They need more support with career choice, because
school
leavers often do not know what they actually want to do.
Because the German economy is based on knowledge and technology and
this knowledge is being lost more and more, our economic productivity
is sinking, because Germany has hardly any raw materials. It's
not just the fault of the
education system but also the young people
themselves. They have expectations which are too high and because of
this find it hard to get a job. They want to look until they 100%
happy, but this is hardly possible. A further point is that young
people often don't want to do anything - in other words to work. We
live today in a consumer society which means that they've always got
what they wanted from their parents and so have never learnt to work
for things. So upbringing must be partly to blame. Parents should
help children with career choice and applications so that they can have
the right start in the world of work. You can collect information about
organisations which help (the job centre for example). But despite this
help over 20% of school leavers are sitting at home without work and
this can have serious consequences. If they only get rejections, they
begin to think at some point that they are worth nothing and that noone
wants them. They then look for other ways of getting money. They
often become involved in the criminal world. They start dealing
in drugs or selling other things, they break into houses and rob
people. The goverment has a plan where it is set out that every firm
should employ a certain number of trainees according to its size.
If this isn't the case they have to pay a fine to the state.
Industry and Trade Associations are against this because there are no
apprentices to be found, because many applicants have a low level of
education and so the
firms would be investing too much in training or
the outcaome of the training would be uncertain. There are also
firms which specialise in the training of school leavers e.g.
Provadis. This is how it works: Firms which need workers contact
Provadis and 'order' an apprentice, so that if you train with Provadis
you have about an 80% chance of a job. Because according to
latest figures the number of unemployed has risen to over 5 million, we
should really think early on what we are going to do later. The
state should also engage more intensively with the employment
situation, because the more we drag our heals, the sooner, in my
opinion, we will haed into ruin.
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