Germany: renewed until 2014, the “apprenticeship pact” was rejected by the Confederation of German Trade Unions

Recruit more apprentices among young people of immigrant descent.  Adopted in 2004 by employers and the red-green administration at the time, the “apprenticeship pact” (Ausbildungspakt) was signed during a great shortage of apprenticeship places.  Within the framework of this agreement, renewed in 2007, businesses voluntarily committed to offer, every year, 60,000 “new” apprenticeship places (i.e. created by businesses training apprentices for the first time or increasing their training offer) as well as 40,000 “qualifying internships” for apprenticeship (see our dispatch No. 070213).  However, today, the situation on the apprenticeship market has changed.  “Demographic change is real: what are lacking now aren’t places but applicants” said Hans Heinrich Driftmann, leader of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK).  Thus, since 2007, the Federal Employment Agency registered a drop of about one fourth in the number of applicants.  In eastern Germany, it was by one half.  To face this challenge, the signatories of the pact now want to “better use existing potential,” notably by appealing to young people of immigrant descent, still underrepresented among apprentices.  Thus, only one third of second-generation immigrants – as opposed to two thirds in German families – are currently attending during training.  according to Maria Böhmer, in charge of integration for the federal government, this situation is even worse since young people of immigrant descent now account for 30% of 10-15 year olds living in Germany.  To solve this problem, the pact was signed, for the first time, by Maria Böhmer as well as by the Länder’s Ministers of Education.