Print version Recommend this page Press release
20/ 2009
Bonn, 18.06.2009
Prestige an important aspect: occupations with image problems particularly badly affected by the fall in the number of applicants
The economic crisis and the impending collapse in the number of apprenticeships this autumn are not the only factors currently exerting pressure on the training market. Some places are also seeing the number of applicants shrink. This is a situation which particularly appertains in East Germany, where the Federal Employment Agency (BA) recorded a 27% fall in applicants for training places at the end of May 2009 compared with the previous month. The number of in-company apprenticeships had already exceeded the number of applicants in five of the 37 BA districts. These declining figures presage a problem which will affect the whole of Germany in the not too distant future. Demographic developments will make it significantly more difficult for companies to recruit up-and-coming skilled workers. "Nevertheless, not all occupations will be affected to the same degree", says Manfred Kremer, President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). "The defining aspect in this regard is the image of the occupations. This plays a significant role in determining the expected number of applicants."
Training occupations which continue to be very much in demand amongst young people include visual marketing designer, animal keeper and photographer. The view of BIBB is that such occupations will retain their popularity. By way of contrast, various commercial training occupations are already experiencing major recruitment problems. This particularly applies in the cleaning and food related craft trade sectors, although the picture for restaurant and hotel occupations is not especially rosy either. The figures for the end of May showed some occupations failing to attract even 50 applicants per 100 places.
A BIBB survey of pupils from the higher classes within general schooling revealed that this low level of demand is only partially due to the fact that young people lack interest in the typical tasks associated with these occupations. The degree of recognition accorded to the occupations by young people within our society does, however, play an important role.
Young people take the view that high prestige is particularly attached to intelligent, high-earning and ambitious workers who have an above-average level of education. By way of contrast, young people do not believe that virtues such as skill, physical fitness, hard work, the ability to communicate and selflessness have a major part to play in determining the level of prestige an occupation enjoys. The consequence of this is that office-based occupations involving creative activity are perceived as being particularly good for the image and are a correspondingly desirable object of young people's ambitions. Occupations which focus on physical work, manual skills and social activities tend to take a back seat.
New training regulations or new occupational designations provide, however, only a limited solution to the basic problem. This underlying problem seems to be that the work involved in a number of industrial occupations is not accorded sufficient respect. This is an area in which a general adjustment in attitudes and perceptions is required. Given the fact that the media play an important role in the way that young people align themselves socially, previous studies have indicated that the entertainment series broadcast on television may sometimes be of assistance in this regard. It may, for example, prove possible to influence the image of a given occupation if a popular series features a practical worker as one of its protagonists.
The latest edition (3/2009) of the BIBB German language periodical "Vocational Training in Research and Practice" (BWP) provides further information on the topic of "Occupations - development and perspectives". The article relating to the significance of image for career choice is available free of charge as a German language download at www.bibb.de/bwp/image.
Points of contact at BIBB for further information:
- Verena Eberhard, Tel.: 0228 / 107-1118, e-mail: eberhard@bibb.de
- Dr. Joachim Gerd Ulrich, Tel.: 0228 / 107-1122, e-mail: ulrich@bibb.de
