Print version Recommend this page Press release
17/ 2004
Bonn, 12.05.2004
Hot off the press - The Ausbildungsfibel 2004 vocational training guide
Tips and assistance for companies that want to start providing vocational training
Providing vocational training is a worthwhile undertaking! Making it possible for young people to enter working life by providing them a training place is important not only for the young people involved. It is also important for the companies providing this training - because vocational training ensures that they will be able to meet their future demand for skilled labour and produces motivated employees who have already been "put to the test" in the respective company. The following list cites the ten most important reasons why vocational training particularly benefits the companies providing it:
In-house vocational training
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- Ensures that a company can meet its future needs for skilled labour,
- Produces motivated employees who have already been tested in the particular company,
- Reduces fluctuation and hiring mistakes,
- Saves lengthy familiarization periods for new employees,
- Means that trainees are productive even during their training,
- Makes a positive contribution to the image of the company providing the training,
- Increases flexibility and the capability to produce innovation,
- Generates positive impetus for the way continuing training is designed, organized and structured,
- Builds up a younger staff,
- Makes a contribution to integrating young people into society and activates existing reserves of talent to the benefit of society.
Although many firms have increasingly recognized these advantages in recent years, the number of new training agreements fell once again in 2003 - in both the western and eastern states - despite massive state and federal funding for additional training places and the stepped-up efforts by the partners in the 2003 Vocational Training Campaign to increase the number of in-house training places on offer. This decline took place in each of Germany's states with the exception of Schleswig-Holstein. Looking at the individual sectors of the economy, the bodies in charge of vocational training in the trades, liberal professions and civil service report above-average declines in the number of training places offered in their segments. Consequently, one of the primary objectives of the joint efforts being undertaken by the German government, employers and unions is to identify additional training capacity so that full use can be made of all in-house training places being offered in the country. This means on the one hand that companies which have temporarily stopped providing in-house vocational training have to be persuaded to get involved again. On the other hand however, companies that have no experience in providing in-house vocational training - but would be able to provide young people training on an in-house basis or together with other companies in a training network - are to be induced to start providing training that leads to formal vocational qualification.
The German-language Ausbildungsfibel 2004 vocational training guide contains tips and information for companies that are taking part in in-house vocational training for the first time. A useful guide that is the tried and tested product of many years' experience, the Ausbildungsfibel is published by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training ("BIBB") and the Federal Employment Agency. It is updated annually. The Ausbildungsfibel 2004 is the 12th edition.
This handy guide includes information on:
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- The financial programmes being offered by the individual states to promote the provision of vocational training,
- Requirements that a company offering in-house vocational training must meet,
- Ways and means for recruiting trainees on a competent basis,
- Applicant selection,
- The conclusion of training agreements, plus pertinent rules and regulations,
- Trainee rights and obligations,
- Organization of vocational training provided by companies or vocational schools,
- Providing training for young people who are handicapped or are foreign nationals,
- The KAUSA (coordinating office for vocational training in foreign companies) project, a nationwide network for anyone involved with or interested in fostering training places in foreign firms.
The guide also includes a checklist to help companies providing in-house training for the first time make sure they have taken all the preparatory steps necessary to be ready for the first day of training.
The Ausbildungsfibel also contains the latest legal provisions of interest to companies that provide vocational training, plus tips regarding other sources of information on providing vocational training and a link to an up-to-date list of all bodies that are responsible for vocational training.
These sections are supplemented by practice-oriented tips and publications dealing with all aspects of vocational training for young people.
The print version of the German-language Ausbildungsfibel 2004 - Tipps und Hilfen für Betriebe can be ordered by fax only from the BA-Service-Haus, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Geschäftstelle für Veröffentlichungen, 90327 Nuremberg, Germany. Fax: +49 - 911 - 179 1147. Please be sure to mention the title Ausbildungsfibel when ordering. Single copies may be ordered free of charge. A fee of €1.28 per copy is charged for orders of four copies or more. The Ausbildungsfibel cannot be ordered through the Federal Institute for Vocational Training.
The Ausbildungsfibel can also be downloaded in pdf form (in German) from the Internet at:
http://www.arbeitsagentur.de/content/de_DE/hauptstelle/a-04/importierter_inhalt/pdf/ausbildungsfibel_04.pdf
