"Not just look at the certificate, but also at the skills"

The shortage of skilled workers in Germany is becoming a real brake on growth for the economy. It has now covered almost all sectors. And yet every year numerous young people remain without a training place after school - because the demands of the companies and the wishes and requirements of the potential trainees do not match. The 22.5 percent of young people who leave school without a degree or with a secondary school diploma are particularly affected: their professional prospects are likely to continue to deteriorate in the coming years.

That is the main result of an expert survey conducted by the German Children and Youth Foundation together with the Bertelsmann Foundation. 100 representatives from business, administration, educational practice, science and civil society were asked about their assessment of the training prospects of young people with a low level of school education. The result: their chances will not improve in the coming years, despite the shortage of skilled workers, but rather worse.

Even now, despite the many vacant training positions, more than a third (35.8 percent) of secondary school graduates between the ages of 20 and 34 have no training. Almost two-thirds (64.4 percent) of those without a school-leaving qualification do so. And there is no improvement in sight.

More than half of the vocational training experts surveyed expect that the qualification requirements would also increase in the training occupations that are relevant for young people with a low level of school education. 42 percent assume that this will be the case at least in part. 61 percent expect that the employment opportunities for the low-skilled would decrease. Half of the experts surveyed also expect the number of unskilled workers to increase further by 2030.

Particularly problematic: A large majority of 82 percent of the vocational training experts surveyed consider it unlikely that anything will change in the close connection between social background and educational success by 2030. 16 percent even consider a decoupling of family, cultural and socio-economic framework conditions to be completely impossible. The aspired educational and equal opportunity seems unattainable.

"It is sobering and disturbing that, according to the experts, the close link between social background and educational success will not be broken in the next ten years," said Andreas Knoke, Head of Programs at the German Children and Youth Foundation. He was very moved by the poor prospects for young people with a low level of education: “The prospects for young people are really not good. Many have little chance of finding qualified employment. The situation seems to be getting darker. That is very worrying.” The results also showed how great the pressure to act is. "You can't sit it out."

The fact that so many companies are actually desperately looking for trainees does not change the precarious situation of young people. Many companies would rather leave the positions vacant than fill them with young people without sufficient formal requirements.

The new training year has started and many positions remain vacant. Many employers are dissatisfied with their applicants and there are not enough interested parties. Creativity is therefore required from employers in order to attract trainees.

Source: WELT/ Jonas Feldt

“That too is part of the problem. We need to educate young people better. But we also have to make the training side so flexible that we don't just look at the certificate, but also at the skills that the young people bring with them," says Knoke. Especially in the Corona period, many young people would not have had a chance to convince employers of themselves by appearing personally during internships or taster days - despite their possibly lousy references.

The experts surveyed rated the individual mentoring of young people as particularly promising. Vocational training coaches in schools, for example, or the youth employment agencies, in which careers advisers and the social welfare office work together. "As a society, we have to ask ourselves whether we can continue to afford it and want many young people to be unable to connect every year," says Knoke. "That goes both ways."

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