Print version Recommend this page Press release
17/ 2009
Bonn, 23.04.2009
President Manfred Kremer: "If we all make a concerted effort, there doesn't have to be a crisis on the training place market"
BIBB survey on the vocational training situation in 2009
Although the economic crisis has now reached the training place market as well, firms are making enormous efforts to continue providing in-house vocational training places. According to a representative survey of some 1,000 enterprises that the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) conducted this spring to assess how willing firms in Germany are to provide in-company vocational training this year, 22% of the firms surveyed said they want to increase the number of training places they offer and another 32% report that they will continue to offer the same number of training places as during the previous training year. However, 25% plan to offer fewer training places, a further 20% could not make a definite statement. Despite the difficult situation, BIBB's President Manfred Kremer is confident that the current problems on the training place market can be solved. "This will however require that everyone involved pulls in the same direction and all means of stabilizing the number of training places on offer be used."
As the BIBB survey shows, the situation is particularly difficult among firms in trade and industry. This category includes many export- and consumption-dependent branches. Thirty-one per cent of the enterprises in this area plan to reduce the number of training places they offer this year. Just 15% want to increase the number they offer. By comparison, the situation in the crafts and skilled trades field is better. Here, more enterprises (29%) want to increase the number of training places they offer compared to the previous year than want to cut back (21%).
The responses to the question regarding the reasons for shedding training places reveal that the current economic crisis has left a noticeable mark. Nearly one out of every three enterprises cited the present economic situation as the reason for its cautiousness. A comparison of Germany's eastern states and western states shows that it is primarily firms in the western states that want to reduce the number of training places they offer.
Due to the current demographic trend, the already declining demand for training places will drop by some 30,000 in 2009. However, as President Kremer pointed out, the current BIBB survey shows that the number of new training contracts could drop by up to 50,000 over the number of contracts signed in 2008 (some 616,000) - a decline of 8% - if the political sector, trade and industry do not take targeted, concerted action to counter this trend.
Manfred Kremer: "It is clear that many firms are making efforts to maintain a high level of training and not make it subject to a difficult but passing economic situation. Chambers, associations and employment agencies must make every effort to support these efforts when soliciting the provision of in-company vocational training places." As Kremer noted, all existing instruments such as the training bonus for unplaced applicants from previous years should be promoted more intensively and used by enterprises. BIBB president called upon Germany's federal government and state governments to use every means available to stabilize the situation on the training place market.
According to the BIBB survey, if no additional efforts are made, the number of training contracts signed in the trade and industry field in 2009 will probably fall substantially below the previous year's level (-10%). By contrast, the crafts and skilled trades would probably be able to maintain the level reported in 2008 which was however comparably low. At -9%, the decline in the western states would be more than double the decline expected in the eastern states (-4%). the previous year's level. Although large companies with more than 500 employees are likely to be able to maintain their previous year's level, a decline is particularly expected in the number of training places on offer in small and medium-sized enterprises in trade and industry.
