Migrants help German firms fill training vacancies

Published August 16, 2018
Wuppertal (Germany): Ahmad Hosseini, 18-year-old trainee and former refugee from Afghanistan poses for an image next to a computerised CNC miller at the training workshop of Knipex, a 130 year-old family-owned pliers and tools maker company —Reuters file photo
Wuppertal (Germany): Ahmad Hosseini, 18-year-old trainee and former refugee from Afghanistan poses for an image next to a computerised CNC miller at the training workshop of Knipex, a 130 year-old family-owned pliers and tools maker company —Reuters file photo

BERLIN: German companies managed to attract more apprentices to on-the-job training schemes last year due to a surge in applications by asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Syria, data showed on Wednesday.

The findings could be a boon for Chancellor Angela Merkel who has faced strong criticism from the far-right, anti-immigration Alter­native for Germany (AfD) party as she has defended her decision to allow in more than one million migrants since 2015, many of whom from war zones.

Shortages of skilled labour and a lack of young people willing to commit to on-the-job training for up to three and a half years have become big concerns for managers in Europe’s largest economy.

Vacancies for training positions have reached their highest level in more than 20 years with more than a third of companies unable to fill their training spots.

However, the high number of asylum seekers has helped to ease the problem, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Wednesday.

The number of new trainees with no German citizenship rose by 10,500, helping to lift the overall number of new vocational training contracts by 5,700 to 515,700 in 2017, the data showed.

Interest was particularly strong among young men from Afghanistan and Syria as their number among the new apprentices more than tripled, the office said. Without their applications, German companies would have ended up with fewer new trainees.

Merkel has argued in the past that Germany’s ageing society could also benefit from the humanitarian decision to help refugees.

“The numbers of young refugees who started on-the-job training increased significantly. That’s good news, and it underpins that integration through education can succeed,” the head of the BDA employers association, Steffen Kampeter, said.

Kampeter urged asylum authorities in Germany’s 16 federal states to implement nationally agreed integration rules more consistently in order to provide as much planning security as possible for companies and refugees alike.

Since August 2016, asylum seekers can continue on-the-job training over three years and work for another two years under certain conditions even if their asylum requests were rejected.

This 3+2 rule of employment — on-the-job training is meant to facilitate integration and reduce risks for companies that they lose a skilled worker after having invested in his or her training.

“Without reliability at this point, there’s an increased risk of dropouts which could frustrate businesses and reduce their willingness to offer training to refugees,” Achim Dercks from the DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce said.

Germany’s dual-track training system, which also includes theory lessons at vocational schools, is being exported in various forms to Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States. But its popularity is waning at home as young people increasingly prefer the higher status of a university degree.

That could hurt growth in Europe’s biggest economy by exacerbating a skilled labour shortage, which is partly caused by millions of ageing employees leaving labour market every year.

The statistics office said that the number of dropouts in vocational training fell slightly last year as roughly 146,000 training contracts were terminated prematurely.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2018

Follow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Opinion

Editorial

‘Source of terror’
Updated 29 Mar, 2024

‘Source of terror’

It is clear that going after militant groups inside Afghanistan unilaterally presents its own set of difficulties.
Chipping in
29 Mar, 2024

Chipping in

FEDERAL infrastructure development schemes are located in the provinces. Most such projects — for instance,...
Toxic emitters
29 Mar, 2024

Toxic emitters

IT is concerning to note that dozens of industries have been violating environmental laws in and around Islamabad....
Judiciary’s SOS
Updated 28 Mar, 2024

Judiciary’s SOS

The ball is now in CJP Isa’s court, and he will feel pressure to take action.
Data protection
28 Mar, 2024

Data protection

WHAT do we want? Data protection laws. When do we want them? Immediately. Without delay, if we are to prevent ...
Selling humans
28 Mar, 2024

Selling humans

HUMAN traders feed off economic distress; they peddle promises of a better life to the impoverished who, mired in...