Print version Recommend this page Press release
38/ 2006
Bonn, 31.10.2006
Practice is what counts! - BIBB study on the training place programme for eastern Germany
In-company practice is important for participants in extra-company training and increases their chances on the labour market. This is illustrated by the fact that four out of every ten young people in the training place programme for eastern Germany who underwent training offered by external providers working in close cooperation with local enterprises had a job within six months of completion of training. This form of VET mainly involves learning in a company providing training, in just the same way as in a "normal" apprenticeship, rather than being merely confined to extra-company workshops. In contrast, only just over one in five (22 %) of young people who had completed their apprenticeship in school-based training had a job. A further 13 % completed an in-company accredited year. A "normal" company apprenticeship continues to provide the best opportunities on the labour market, however, the success rate of young people in eastern Germany who had completed this type of training being 53 %.
These are the results of a study undertaken by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) on the labour market chances of those completing the training place programme for eastern Germany. The survey represents one component of an evaluation of the programme commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). This year, the ministry is making funding of 88 million euro available to finance around 13,000 extra-company training places. During the course of the study, interviews were conducted with 1,500 participants in the programme and with 500 employed persons who had completed company training.
The most frequent means by which those completing the programme obtained a job was by being taken on permanently by the company which had provided the training or practical placement. Taking into account those for whom the companies providing training or work experience arranged placements, just under two thirds (64 %) of employees completing company training and nearly half (45 %) of those undergoing training offered by external providers working in close cooperation with local enterprises were able to find their present job. In the case of those employees who had undergone school-based training, however, the figure was only 14 %, companies providing practical placements being ascribed a lesser importance.
Leaving aside the fact that those completing company training have an advantage when it comes to being taken on permanently and assuming that they would have to submit applications on the labour market in the same way as everyone else, there is a virtual levelling out of the proportions obtaining a job (those undergoing training offered by external providers working in close cooperation with local enterprises 31 %; "normal" apprenticeship 34 %).
The labour market chances of those undergoing the former type of training were also influenced by the training occupation. More than half of those who had completed training in electrical, metalworking IT or media occupations had a job, whereas for commercial office occupations the figures were only one in three.
Where young people find work outside the company providing training, evaluation of the applicability of what has been learned is equally high both in the case of those who have completed company training and those who have undergone training offered by external providers working in close cooperation with local enterprises. In small companies with up to nine employees, those who have been trained within the latter system even benefit from the combination of company and extra-company phases of training. Here, 61 % were able to apply "nearly everything" or "a lot" of what they had learned within their new job. Only 44 % of those employees who had undergone company training were able to report the same.
Further German language information on the training place programmes for eastern Germany is available on the BIBB website at www.bibb.de/de/wlk8305.htm
The full report on the survey conducted of those completing training is available in German for download at www.bibb.de/dokumente/pdf/Ergebnisbericht_Absolv_18_10_06fin.pdf
Point of contact at BIBB for further information:
Klaus Berger, Tel.: 0228 / 107-1320; Fax: 0228 / 107-2960; berger@bibb.de
