In the dual training world, a new trend is taking shape: ‘partial’ training. The idea is to offer ‘lighter’ training (1-3 years) than traditional work-study training, based on funding from the company and sometimes the Federal Employment Agency. Encouraged by the manufacturing employers’ organizations in Bavaria, more and more businesses are appealing to this cheaper model to improve the employability of low-skilled workers or even young people who have missed the traditional vocational training path. There’s so much interest that the Chambers of Commerce and Industry have recently launched a national pilot project. Faced with these developments, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts and unions are worried about the possible rise of a two-tier training world, or even the slow dequalification of some workers.
Bavaria, the driving force behind ‘partial’ training. It’s at a press conference at the end of February that the general secretary of the Bavarian federation of metal and electro technical firms (Bayme vbm), Bertram Bossard, officially launched his federation’s initiative, entitled “Employers’ Initiative for Partial Training” (Arbeitgeberinitiative Teilqualifizierung). Actually, this has already been in place since 2007, but only recently have Bavaria’s manufacturing employers have decided to further communicate on the subject and promote what is now termed a “Bavarian success” at national level.
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