Print version Recommend this page Press release
33/ 2007
Bonn, 19.07.2007
Repeat applicants: Qualified, motivated - and yet fewer chances
The proportion of repeat applicants among training place applicants has increased steadily in the last few years. The year 2006 was the first year in which more than half the applicants registered with the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit - BA) had left school in the previous year or even earlier. Repeat applicants find it particularly difficult to find an apprenticeship in the training place market. Their school leaving certificates are not inferior to those of persons looking for an apprenticeship for the first time. Quite the contrary: they are qualified and motivated. And yet their chances of obtaining a training place are much worse. Repeat applicants are more frequently in extra-company training, they take temporary jobs more often, and a higher percentage of them suffer unemployment. These are some of the results of a representative 2006 survey of training place applicants conducted jointly by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung - BIBB) and the Federal Employment Agency, published in the first edition of the new BIBB REPORT series.
In the BA/BIBB applicant survey, unlike the BA statistics, the repeat applicants group can be restricted to persons who really did try to obtain a training place in earlier placement years. In 2006, about 40 per cent of the 763,000-odd applicants belonged to that group (36 per cent in 2004). That is 302,100 persons in absolute figures (2004: 266,700). The study also shows that the further back the first application is, the slighter the chances of being placed in in-company vocational education and training.
The situation is especially precarious for young people who already applied for a training place more than two years earlier and for those who registered as unemployed, accepted a job without the relevant training or only do temporary work. Many of those who are in the so-called "transition system" (e.g. periods of practical training, vocational school, schools of general education) indicate that although these education pathways do not jibe with their original wishes they are indeed a reasonable alternative ("stop-gap measures"). The results of the study confirm that the repeat applicants group consists of highly diverse groups of persons with widely differing training prospects.
The main factors that could facilitate the transition to in-company vocational education and training for repeat applicants are
- higher-level school leaving certificates, especially certificates from (higher) commercial schools,
- good marks (especially in mathematics and German),
- successful completion of entry-level qualification (EQJ).
In the opinion of the authors of the BIBB REPORT issue, the good business climate and the positive trend in the labour market in particular will ensure a powerful impetus for the training place market as well this year. Although the repeat applicants will also profit from this, it will not solve the specific problems facing repeat applicants in general.
That will require structural reforms in general education and vocational education and training as well as diverse measures to support those affected. The "Vocational Education and Training Innovation Circle" has meanwhile adopted ten guidelines for modernising and improving the structure of vocational education and training (www.bmbf.de/pub/leitlinien_innovationskreis.pdf ).
Further information on the 2006 BA/BIBB applicant survey can be found at the BIBB website, http://www.bibb.de/
You can also download the full text of the BIBB REPORT, vol. 1, July 2007 from there.
Information on the content of the BIBB REPORT can be obtained from:
- Dr. Joachim Gerd Ulrich, Phone: 0228 / 107-1122; E-mail: ulrich@bibb.de
- Dr. Elisabeth M. Krekel, Phone: 0228 / 107-1109; E-mail: krekel@bibb.de
The topic of repeat applicants will also be dealt with by the "Thresholds, Obstacles, Wait Loops - Transitions from the Education System to the Employment System" study group in Forum 4 at the 5th BIBB Symposium, taking place at the Congress Center Düsseldorf (CCD) from 12 to 14 September 2007. Information and registration for the Symposium under www.bibb.de/fachkongress
