Germany: broad alliance formed to limit the damage of the economic downturn on apprenticeships

The ensemble of social partners active at a national level across the German labour market have joined the 'alliance for apprenticeship and ongoing training', an initiative jointly initiated and presented on Tuesday 26 May by the ministries for employment and economics as well as that for education and research. The aim of the initiative is to consolidate the central dual learning framework that exists in the German education system. Among other measures, apprentices who are forced to cut their training short because their host company goes bankrupt will be granted to legal and financial means to complete their training elsewhere, as well as assistance in finding a placement.
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Major concerns about apprenticeships. The severe downturn in the German economy is currently leading to a sharp rise in unemployment (a 308,000 rise in the number of unemployed people in April, taking the rate to 5.8%), which is still being tempered by an unprecedented level of short-time working in the country. Another factor that is still difficult to assess, but which is crucial for maintaining the supply of apprenticeships and ongoing training, is the number of companies going bankrupt. Sho

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