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48/ 2010
Bonn, 17.12.2010
Chances of finding a training place: the West "outperformed" by the East
For many years, the lack of work and training positions has been considerably greater in the eastern part of Germany than in the western part. For training places this is no longer true. But there is a paradoxical situation: According to the results of the survey of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) on training contracts newly concluded in 2010 only about 91,700 contracts have been concluded in East Germany, a decline of 7.4% compared to the previous year (West Germany: 468,400; +0.7%). But nevertheless, the chances of eastern German young people in search of a training place have continued to improve because the number of school leavers is dramatically decreasing in East Germany. Within only 9 years it has decreased by almost 50% (2010: about 114,100; 2001: about 222,500). This trend is set to continue in the next year as well.
With 30 September as the cut-off date there were statistically 94 training places offered for every 100 training places sought (2009: 92). In West Germany the comparative figures were lower (2010: 89; 2009: 88). This favourable supply/demand ratio led to young eastern Germans having more success in the search for training places than their age group peers in the West. Just under 10% of the applicants were still looking for a training place at the end of September, several weeks after the new year of training had started. These comprised10,000 young people, among them 6,200 with alternative placement opportunities, for example undergoing a period of practical training or re-entering school, and 3,800 without such opportunities. The share in the West, on the other hand, was almost 14% (about 74,600 young people, among them 66,100 with alternative placement opportunities and 8,500 without).
The decrease in the number of school leavers in East Germany has become so pronounced that the training opportunities of young people are becoming disconnected from the local job market situation. East German young people therefore have relatively good chances of finding a training place even in areas where the unemployment rate is still very high. But the better performance of the East German training place market was also influenced by the fact that applicants without a company training place ended up in mostly publicly financed, fully qualifying replacement offerings ("extra-company initial vocational education and training") much more frequently than in the West.
But what looks like an improvement of the situation of East German youths from their point of view looks completely different from the viewpoint of East German enterprises offering training places: They are suffering from a shortage of training applicants. The number of training places offered that could not be filled has thus more than quadrupled in the East within less than ten years (2010: about 3,700; 2001: about 900). This means that companies in East Germany could not find new trainees for almost 5% of their offerings (West Germany: 3%).
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (11%) was particularly hard hit in this respect, and there specifically the region of Stralsund (22%) which is located near the Baltic Sea and depends on tourism. Half of the training places in the guest relations occupations - for example specialist in the restaurant or hotel business - offered by enterprises from that region could not be filled with new trainees.
Seen from the young people's point of view, most of the largest problem regions of the training place market are now located in the western part of Germany, especially in areas with a high unemployment rate (over 10%). This includes the Employment Agency districts of Bremerhaven, Wuppertal, Recklinghausen, Oberhausen, and Gelsenkirchen, among others. On average, 21% of the training applicants in these districts were unsuccessful in their applications although they were certified by the counselling and placement institutions to meet the requirements to begin initial vocational education and training.
Although the western part of Germany did profit from overcoming the economic crisis and more training places were offered to West German youths this year than in the past three years, the decline in the number of school leavers is not nearly as steep in the West as in East Germany. The resulting beneficial effect is thus still much less pronounced in the West than in the new Federal states.
Statistical data on the training place market situation in 2010 can be downloaded from the BIBB website at www.bibb.de/erhebung-2010
Differentiated analyses of the training place market development based on the statistics of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) can be found in the new issue 121 of the BIBB's "Academic Research Discussion Papers" at www.bibb.de/wdp/ausbildungsmarkt-2010
More reports on the regional differences in the treatment of applicants without in-company vocational education and training positions can be found in the new issue 6/2010 of the BIBB specialist journal "Vocational Training in Research and Practice" (BWP). The issue is dedicated to the thematic focus of "Regional Education Markets". Further information at www.bibb.de/bwp/6-2010
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