Professions: Training preferences of young women and men are shifting

In the past decade, gender-specific preferences for certain occupations have shifted on the German labor market.

Between 2010 and 2020, the proportion of young men who wanted to learn the

rose from 12 to 31 percent, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Tuesday.

Conversely, the proportion of women in some previously male-dominated training courses also increased.

In 2020, 783 women concluded an apprenticeship contract to become

.

Their share has increased by 10 points to 21 percent since 2010.

At the wheel of heavy trucks, too, the proportion of prospective

rose from 3 to 10 percent.

Significantly more women than before decided to become carpenters: the proportion rose from ten percent in 2010 to 15 percent in

2020

In

, too, the gender ratio is more balanced today than it was 10 years ago: of the trainees who concluded an apprenticeship contract to become a retail clerk in 2020, 48 percent were women and 52 percent were men.

In 2010, 56 percent of these training courses were started by women and 44 percent by men.

In the

, the male-female ratio has reversed: the proportion of men in the newly concluded training contracts in 2020 was 58 percent. In 2010 it was still 37 percent.

Basically, young women are still underrepresented in the system of dual training in companies and vocational schools with a share of around 36 percent.

They opt more often for professions in the social and health sector that are not trained in the dual system.