Print version Recommend this page Press release
51/ 2007
Bonn, 21.12.2007
Noticeable progress in reducing the shortage of training places
The upswing in the training place market continues: In 2007, 644,100 statistically recorded training places were offered. That was 52,500 or 8.9% more than in the previous year. Of those places, 97.2% were taken. Thus 625,900 young people were able to sign a training contract (+ 49,800 or + 8.6%). That was the outcome of a federal survey of the chambers and other competent bodies conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung - BIBB). The counting of contracts constitutes the closing of the 2007 training market balance-sheet. It is done every year in preparation for the federal government's vocational education and training report. The placement period considered each year is that between the previous October and the end of September.
Despite all the progress made, the supply of training places in 2007 still fell short of demand. At the end of the year under review, approximately 18,400 training places registered with the Federal Labour Agency (BA) were still open while 99,500 training place applicants registered there were not in training although they still wanted to be placed in a training place. Of that number, 70,400 had at least found an alternative - for example a vocational preparation scheme. As of 30 September, 29,100 still had nothing at all.
Most of the additional training places (+ 50.900) provided in 2007 were in Western Germany. 96.9% of the opportunities offered there, a total of 516,600 places, were taken. With those 500,800 new contracts, the figure of half a million training contracts was exceeded for the first time since 1991. One reason for this, the strongest growth since reunification, was the good business climate. The West German enterprises offered a net total of several tens of thousands of additional training places.
Secondly the BA and the federal states provided considerably more extra-company training places for young people who are disadvantaged in the market or socially disadvantaged. That was done to a greater extent in regions where the employment situation was difficult and in the large cities. The purpose of this in particular is to improve the training chances especially of young people with migration backgrounds and of older training place applicants.
The increase in training opportunities was considerably less in Eastern Germany, including Berlin (+ 1,600). The number of training places offered there was 127,400. Of the training places offered, 98.2% were taken (125,100 contracts signed). Despite the more difficult overall employment situation, the training place applicants in Eastern Germany now end up with an apprenticeship more often than West Germans in their age group. The reasons for this are, apart from the improved economic situation, a very good supplementary supply of extra-company training places, the greater regional mobility of young East Germans and the fact that the number of school leavers has been falling for several years. These factors have helped ease the competitive situation among young East Germans.
The situation of the so-called "old applicants", however, is still particularly problematic. This is the term used for persons registered with the BA as apprenticeship seekers who left school in the previous year or even earlier. There are now about 385,000 such persons in the country, accounting for more than fifty per cent of all registered applicants. The chances that these young people will succeed in obtaining a company training place are relatively slight, especially if they have been out of school for two years or more.
Further information, tabular overviews with regionalized results and an abridged report on the latest training market balance-sheet can be found at the BIBB website under www.bibb.de
Questions regarding content will be answered at BIBB by:
- 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
