Germany: a quarter of young people favour working for minimum wage over training Professional development The Bertelsmann Foundation, one of Germany's leading think tanks, has published its annual study on prospects in the youth apprenticeship and training sector. The analysis reveals a worrying trend, whereby a growing number of young people would rather earn a living straight away in unskilled jobs than pursue training. In the federal states, the 'internship bonus' seems to be increasingly attractive to young people, drawing them into the world of work.
United Kingdom: youth employment plan seeks to reduce reliance on foreign workers National legislation Addressing skills shortages and reducing skilled immigration are the objectives of the plan announced on 27 May by UK education secretary Bridget Phillipson.…
United Kingdom: Tesco develops apprenticeships and grants pay rises above inflation Professional development After committing in mid-February to bolstering its apprenticeship programme for the start of the next academic year, UK supermarket chain Tesco signed an agreement with the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) on 17 March raising the hourly wage of shop and distribution centre employees by 5.2%. This increase, which is higher than inflation, will be applied in two stages, in March and August 2025.
EU: hospitality sector social partners sign joint declaration on skills shortages Transnational industrial relations In a joint text published on 19 March, the European Federation of Food, Agriculture, and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT) and HOTREC, the hotel sector employer federation,…
Safran steps up commitment to the professional integration of young people with renewal of European agreement Transnational industrial relations Safran and the trade union federation IndustriAll Europe have renewed for the second time the European agreement on the professional integration of young people, which has bound the two parties since 2013. The agreement reinforces the group's ambitions on work-study students and interns and will see it diversify its recruitment methods.
Réglementaire United Kingdom: government unveils measures to boost apprenticeships National legislation On 18 March, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak unveiled measures designed to boost apprenticeships. To this end,…
Réglementaire France: engineering, banking and insurance industries seek to reform vocational training system Professional development In a co-edited white paper presented on 25 January 2024, the business organisations in France's engineering, banking and insurance sectors – Fédération Syntec, Fédération Bancaire Française and France Assureurs – have proposed 10 measures to reform apprenticeship, training and professional retraining.
Italy: new agreement on generational renewal at UniCredit National industrial relations The agreement signed on 19 December between Italy's second-largest bank and the Fabi, First-Cisl, Fisac-Cgil, Uilca and Unisin trade unions will enable 510 employees to take early retirement, while new recruits could total 424. The ratio of departures to new hires should therefore be higher than standard practice in the Italian banking sector (one new hire for every two departures).
Great Britain: government seeking to control the quality of third level diplomas and facilitate apprenticeships National legislation On 17 July the UK government announced that going forward it would be limiting the number of ‘low-value’ degrees on offer. ‘Students and taxpayers will be better protected against rip-off degree courses that have high drop-out rates,…
Réglementaire Germany: law passed to create ‘apprenticeship guarantee’ and ‘qualification allowance’ National legislation As part of its national strategy to attract and train a larger skilled workforce, and following the passing on Friday 23 June of its new law on economic immigration, the Bundestag also passed a law to bolster continuing education, in order to better deal with the changes in the world of work "brought about by the imperatives of digitalisation and the quest for climate neutrality".
