No. 1/1999
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No. 1/1999 |
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The new German Government wants to provide training places for all young people who have not yet found places in the current training year. An emergency programme has been set up to implement the Alliance for Employment and Training (Bundnis für Arbeit und Ausbildung), which was incorporated in the coalition agreement between the Social Democrats and the Green Alliance. With this measure the German Government wants to help some 100,000 young people who have no initial training or have been unemployed for more than six months after completing their initial training.
The first measures to be taken are to fill training places which are still vacant and to encourage the creation of additional in-company training places. If those measures are not sufficient, training places outside companies will fill the gap. Offers are being made to young people who are unemployed despite having completed their vocational training, to enable them to acquire additional qualifications or to be re-integrated into the working world through subsidising wages or employment creation measures. The remaining elements of the emergency programme are training and preparatory measures for young people who have no final vocational certificates, and aids for disadvantaged young people in employment. The European Social Fund is contributing approximately EUR 308 million to the total cost of EUR 1.03 billion. As early as February 1999, firm offers were made to over 160,000 young people. So far more than 33,000 young people have been involved in concrete measures under the emergency programme. The German Industry and Trade Advisory Board for Vocational Education (Kuratorium der Deutschen Wirtschaft für Berufsbildung) welcomes the intention of the German Government to make special efforts to promote vocational training and occupational integration for young people but thinks that the appeal for training places for all is unrealistic. The confederations of industry represented in the Advisory Board point out that 15 percent of school-leavers do not have the maturity for training because of educational and social deficiencies. The demand to fill 50 percent of training places with young women cannot be fulfilled because too few women are interested in industrial/technical occupations. The percentage of women could be raised if the care sector was included in the dual vocational training system. The government responded on 10 March 1999 with draft legislation providing for a national ordinance on training in the field of old-age welfare care. The confederations of industry have agreed to increase their training commitment in the coming years. But the pre-condition for this is a rejection of mandatory provisions as stated in the government declaration. Current information on the emergency programme can be obtained at the following Internet site: www.100000jobs.de/ausbildung.htmSource: SPD aktuell/BfA/BIBB/KWB/CEDEFOP/SK |
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