Print version Recommend this page Press release
19/ 2012
Bonn, 04.05.2012
BIBB President Esser: "Education expansion must not bypass vocational education and training"
On "Apprenticeship Day", 7th May, the President of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), Friedrich Hubert Esser, appealed to companies not to relax their training efforts. "Owing to demographic developments and the continuing trend towards more higher school and academic certificates, vocational education and training is in danger of being sidelined. The perceptibly evolving education expansion must not bypass company-oriented qualification", Esser warns. The latest BIBB model calculations, he said, had shown that in the long term serious shortages were to be expected, especially of skilled workers who had completed their vocational education and training. "For that reason the companies would be well advised at this time in particular to invest in vocational education and training and pursue an offensive training marketing strategy. Building on initial vocational education and training, continuing training offers ambitious and attractive upgrading training opportunities through which certificates adequate for higher education can be obtained. Initial and continuing vocational education and training are thus not just the best insurance against the looming skilled labour shortage but also open up attractive career prospects for qualified persons in Germany and abroad."
The BIBB President is concerned about indications contained in a recent representative survey of companies conducted by the BIBB that 12% of the companies intend to reduce the current number of apprenticeships offered or to discontinue in-company vocational training. The reason given is the difficulty in finding suitable trainees. "But that would be precisely the wrong signal", Esser stresses. "Companies that want to meet their future skilled labour requirements must direct their efforts towards opening up all potentials for qualification and employment. They are supported in this by the training centres of the private sector and the vocational schools."
Esser describes the labour market as "continuing to develop gratifyingly". "Traditionally", the BIBB President says, "the training place market follows the labour market." "Falling unemployment and the growing number of in-company training positions registered with the Federal Employment Agency compared to last year are grounds for hope from the viewpoint of young people that the training place market will continue to relax this autumn."
Meanwhile the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training is continuing its activities in modernising the dual system of vocational education and training. On 1 August, at the beginning of the new training year, five modernised training occupations are expected to come into effect:
- Specialist in labour market services
- Pharmaceutical commercial clerk
- Sign and luminous advertising maker
- Chimney sweep
- Process mechanic for plastic and rubber engineering
See www.bibb.de/berufe for further information on these and all other officially recognised training occupations.
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