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Long-term development of the training allowances set under collective agreements in Germany
The training allowances paid to apprentices in Germany have been a recurrent topic in the education policy debate in good times and bad. When the apprenticeship market had too few vacancies on offer, training allowances were frequently said to be too high. In those circum-stances, they were seen as a barrier to the provision of adequate numbers of in-company training places. When the market situation reversed, i.e. apprenticeship vacancies exceeded demand and many were left unfilled, the conclusions drawn about the level of apprentice pay were often the complete opposite. Large increases in the allowances were suggested as a means of enhancing the appeal of in-company initial vocational training for young people. The various debates concerning training allowances have always had a perceptible influence on their actual development.
The present discussion paper sets out the results of an almost 35-year longitudinal observa-tion of the training allowances set under collective agreements. The differentiated trends in apprentice pay in East and West Germany are traced and analysed. Beyond this, the paper examines the historical development of allowance payments, the current legal bases, and the significance of training allowances from the viewpoint of companies and trainees. Owing to demographic changes, the next few years are likely to herald an ever greater shortfall in de-mand for in-company initial vocational training. As education policy considers once again how to make in-company training more attractive, it is possible that training allowances will command much keener attention in the near future than they do today.
