Corona crisis and lockdown have hit vocational training hard: Many young people got stuck on the way to an apprenticeship - not only in the past year.

Those who had hoped for a second attempt this spring were confronted with new contact restrictions instead of training offers.

Experts assessed the situation this year to be even more gloomy at times than in 2020. However, there are now all the more signs of a dynamic change for the better.

Dietrich Creutzburg

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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Julia Löhr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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There are those in the skilled trades: The number of newly concluded training contracts there is now well above the previous year's level. By the end of June, 62,251 young people had found an apprenticeship in a craft business and had signed a contract to start their apprenticeship. That is 13 percent more than a year ago. It shows an as yet unpublished interim balance sheet by the Central Craft Association ZDH. It is available to the FAZ. It is true that the pre-crisis level has not yet been fully reached. The deficit to 2019 was 3,758 new contracts or 5.7 percent at the end of June - but it is now shrinking every month: Compared to May 2019, the deficit was 9.9 percent.

Apparently, after the lockdown, many applicants and companies were late, but quickly found each other.

And so it should continue until the start of the new apprenticeship year in late summer: "Now is an ideal time for young people to find out about a career in the craft and start training in the craft," advertises the President of the Craftsmen Hans Peter Wollseifer.

"There are many opportunities to do this - there are currently 31,000 vacant training positions in all trades and regions," he explains.

Total number of apprenticeships under half a million

However, there are also signs of a trend reversal in the apprenticeships in industry and trade, just not yet so lively. Peter Adrian, the new President of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), confirms it: By the end of June, the IHKs had registered 1.4 percent more training contracts than last year. "The trend is positive here, because in the previous months the numbers were still in the red," he told the FAZ. Now he appeals to young people and companies: "Stay tuned!"

Last year, Corona caused a deep slump: the total number of newly filled apprenticeship positions fell below half a million for the first time since reunification: from 525,000 in the previous year to 467,500 - minus 11 percent, as the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) shows. In the skilled trades, the number of new contracts fell by 7.5 percent to 132,000, in the traditionally largest area, that of the IHKs, even by 14 percent to 262,000.

This has to do with the fact that this area includes sectors such as the hospitality and events industry, which were particularly hard hit by the lockdown. The problem wasn't just that companies offered fewer apprenticeships - there were also fewer applicants. DIHK boss Adrian explains the connection: "Above all, there were no internships for schoolchildren in companies or training fairs." As a result, the number of applicants fell even more sharply than the number of apprenticeships.

However, this now improves the chance of turning the tide at short notice through targeted mediation campaigns. "We drum with the IHKs on all channels for this practical entry into professional life," emphasizes Adrian. At the same time, a large campaign by chambers and politics is running under the title “Summer of Training”, which supports this across all industries. In fact, a total of 216,000 vacant apprenticeships were still registered with the employment agencies in June - and 158,000 applicants who were still looking. For companies and chambers, it has long been a matter of getting more young people interested in traditional vocational training.

Crafts President Wollseifer makes this very clear: “In these uncertain and turbulent times, the craft sector in particular offers young people future-proof and demanding jobs with excellent training and career opportunities up to master craftsmen and self-employment”, he emphasizes. “In no other economic sector can you become your own boss so early.” At the same time, the technological change speaks not against training in the craft, but in favor of it. Because, according to Wollseifer: All major future fields - from the energy and mobility transition to the expansion of the digital infrastructure to residential construction - can only be "designed and implemented with dual training and further education skilled craftsmen".