COVID-19 crisis leads to unprecedented slump in apprenticeships in Germany

2021-04-14 11:35:13 GMT2021-04-14 19:35:13(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

BERLIN, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The number of new vocational training contracts concluded in Germany in 2020 declined by 9.4 percent year-on-year, according to provisional results of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) published on Wednesday.

This result "reveals that the coronavirus crisis has a profound effect on the apprenticeship market" in Germany, Destatis noted. Although apprenticeship figures had shown a "downward trend for years, the scale of the current slump is unprecedented."

Germany's agriculture sector was the only sector to show a slight increase in the number of new contracts in the country's dual training system, which combines company apprenticeships and vocational education at a school, according to Destatis.

In all other sectors, the number of apprenticeship contracts fell, with industry and trade showing the highest drop with 11.9 percent. According to Destatis, many of the professions particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis and the related restrictions were in trade.

To support the country's apprenticeship program during COVID-19, the German government recently extended financial benefits for companies offering vocational training during the COVID-19 crisis.

For the program, 500 million euros (597.6 million U.S. dollars) were made available in 2021, according to Germany's Ministry of Labor (BMAS). A further 200 million euros were earmarked for 2022.

The latest figures by the Federal Employment Agency (BA) revealed that 197,000 applicants in Germany had not found a training position yet. Only 415,000 training positions were officially registered, 32,000 less than a year ago.

"This reflects the restrictions and uncertainties caused by the pandemic and the transformation processes in the economy" in the country, BA noted. (1 euro = 1.20 U.S. dollars) Enditem

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