Print version Recommend this page Press release
27/ 2006
Bonn, 03.08.2006
Young people make great efforts when hunting for a training place
The tighter the training place market is, the more regional and occupational mobility training place applicants exhibit: Many young people in regions where training places are not abundant target several occupations at the same time - and often for training places far from home. These are just some of the findings from the latest applicant survey that the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training ("BIBB") and the Federal Employment Agency ("BA") conducted in late 2004. A representative sample of 5,000 young people who were registered with the BA as training place seekers in 2004 were surveyed for this study.
- Regional mobility
Young people are frequently admonished that they are not mobile enough and focus too much on the training places on offer in their immediate vicinity. The Federal Employment Agency's statistics appear to confirm this: In 2004, fewer than three per cent of all training place applicants began training outside the state they were living in. This figure however indicates only realized mobility. In other words: Only those young people who actually find a training place far from home are classified as "mobile".
However, when asked about their efforts to find a training place outside their local area - regardless of whether they were successful - approximately one-quarter of all respondents said that they had also applied for training places that were more than 100 kilometres from their hometown.
The primary factor behind the willingness to commute long distances or move elsewhere is the situation on the training place market in the particular region. In regions where the number of training places on offer is few - such as is the case in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt - up to 51 per cent of the surveyed applicants are willing to accept a long commute or even move to another town in exchange for a training place. As a result of this willingness to move to another area for a training place, youths from other states account for growing numbers of all new vocational training contracts. In Hamburg for example, 16 per cent of all new vocational training contracts go to out-of-state youths.
- Occupational mobility
Young people are willing not only to apply for training places across the country: Rather than being insistent on learning their "dream occupation", they also give consideration to alternatives - in other words: other occupations. A large majority of training place seekers (some 70 per cent) who have submitted written applications have applied for two or more different occupations - and sent a large number of applications for each occupation. Nearly half of the applicants surveyed (44 per cent) had submitted training place applications for at least four different occupations that require completion of formal vocational training ("training occupation").
To summarize: The tighter the training place situation is near home, the greater the number of different occupations young people apply for. However: The willingness to apply for training places far from home increases even more when there is a shortage of training places in the individual's area. In light of the fact that a lack of identification with one's training occupation is a frequently cited reason for breaking off vocational training, the strategy of applying for training places outside one's home state - which entails a willingness to be mobile - should be viewed as a positive development.
Further information in German is available at the BIBB homepage at: www.bibb.de/de/wlk26519.htm
The complete findings from the BA-BIBB applicants survey will be published this autumn in:
Eberhard, Verena; Krewerth, Andreas; Ulrich, Joachim Gerd (Eds.): Mangelware Lehrstelle. Zur aktuellen Situation der Ausbildungsplatzbewerber in Deutschland.
Point of contact at BIBB for further information on this subject:
Verena Eberhard, Tel.: + 49 (0) 228 - 107 111 8, eberhard@bibb.de
