According to the IG Metall union the success of this experiment has proved conclusive: as part of a joint pilot project launched in April 2017 by the Baden-Württemberg Esslingen IG Metall section and the Südwestmetall metals employers’ body, ten young refugees from Syria and Afghanistan attended a ten-week course in the Plochingen based GARP center for occupational training that combined morning German language lessons with afternoon introductory session on various metal related professions. At the end of the course each of the ten had secured an apprenticeship or a long-term traineeship in a company. Max Czipf from the Esslingen IG Metall entity explains to Planet Labor how the pilot came about and the challenges it faced as it now sets out to be a permanent fixture.
Facilitating refugee access to apprenticeship. For Max Czipf it was the Baden-Württemberg Esslingen IG Metall section of the union body that first came up with the idea for the project. “Each IG Metall section has a €6,000 budget to finance refugee inclusion projects,” he explained, “and we were mulling over how best to invest the money.” One of the entity’s retirees who is actively involved in refugee inclusion put forward the idea of financing an ‘access to apprenticeship’ project. Refugees s
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