Print version Recommend this page Press release
25/ 2010
Bonn, 15.06.2010
BIBB analysis: Proportion of young non-Germans too low despite increase in training participation.
About 65% of young people in Germany take the dual training pathway, that is, vocational training based on in-company training and vocational school. A recent calculation of training participation by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) has shown that while there was little change in the proportion of young people with German citizenship participating in 2008, the training participation rate of young people with foreign passports increased considerably, both for men (+ 5%) and for women (+ 8%). However, the starting values for this increase are very low: only half as many foreign youngsters as Germans sign a training contract in the dual system, and this remains the case although both groups desire in-company education and training to the same extent, about 60%.
Every year the BIBB calculates the young people's training participation indicator (based on vocational education and training statistics and the population update of the statistical offices of the Federal and Länder governments). In 2008, 77.9% of young males with German passports signed training contracts, while only 35.4% of those with foreign passports did so. The proportion of foreign women, at 28.9%, is also only half as high as that of the German women (58%).
Despite the increase over the previous year, young people with foreign passports still have a long way to go to become integrated into the dual system of vocational education and training.
Against the background of demographic change, which in a few years may result in too few young people taking training so that the companies have a shortage of qualified young employees, Prof. Dr. Reinhold Weiß, research director of the BIBB, launched an appeal to the companies: "We will only be able to meet the future need for skilled workers if we can attract more young people who have not taken dual training in the past. Early and practice-oriented information in the schools, greater commitment and flexibility on the part of young people, and in particular a greater willingness on the part of the enterprises to reach out to young people are essential."
A great deal of research is needed here owing to the limited opportunities of access to vocational education and training for young people with a migration background (for a definition see www.bibb.de/begriffe/migrationshintergrund ). And the BIBB is investigating the reasons for these limited opportunities, for example in the BIBB research projects "Training opportunities for young people with migration background" and "Decision-making competence and migration background: school graduates with migration backgrounds in training", which examines the significance of a migration background in teaching and acquisition of vocational decision-making competence (www.bibb.de/de/wlk28963.htm and www.bibb.de/zwischenbericht-projekt-migration ).
In addition, the aim of the "Coordinating office for training in foreign companies" (KAUSA) within the structural training program JOBSTARTER at BIBB is to win over more entrepreneurs with migration backgrounds for dual training (www.jobstarter.de/de/114.php).
The calculations of the BIBB on training participation can be found in issue 3/2010 of the BIBB journal "Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis" (Vocational Education and Training in Research and Practice - BWP) online at www.bibb.de/bwp/ausbildungsbeteiligung
BIBB contact persons for vocational education and training stats:
- Naomi Gericke, Tel: 0228 / 107-1131, E-mail: gericke@bibb.de
- Dr. Alexandra Uhly, Tel: 0228 / 107-1905, E-mail: uhly@bibb.de
For more information and analysis see the provisional version of the BIBB Data Report 2010 under www.bibb.de/datenreport
Other contacts at the BIBB:
On the subject of opportunities of access to training for young people with migration backgrounds: Dr. Mona Granato, Tel: 0228 / 107-1227, E-mail: granato@bibb.de
On the research project "Decision-making competence and migration background":
Dr. Monika Bethscheider, Tel: 0228 / 107-1229, E-mail: bethscheider@bibb.de
Anke Settelmeyer, Tel: 0228 / 107-1202, E-mail: settelmeyer@bibb.de
Voucher copy requested.
