SMEs attractive for trainees: nine out of ten apprentices train in mid-sized companies

Frankfurt am Main (ots) -

- SMEs are bucking the trend and keeping their trainee numbers
constant at around 1.2 million
- Manual trades are particularly popular
- Refugees are reason behind first increase in job training
participants in ten years

Trainee numbers in Germany continues to decline and currently
stand at 1.34 million. A record low was seen in 2015 with a mere
516,000 new trainee contracts concluded. The reasons for this are a
decline in the number of pupils due to progressively changing
demographics and an increased interest in studying among today's
youth. For small and mid-sized companies, however, ensuring a new
generation of skilled employees through vocational training is a
matter of survival. A special analysis of the representative KfW SME
Panel revealed that for the moment they are still managing to counter
this trend: the number of trainees at SMEs has remained relatively
stable at 1.2 million over the last five years. Consequently, nine
out of ten apprentices in Germany complete their vocational training
at a mid-sized company.

"Increasingly it is SMEs that are offering apprenticeships", says
Dr Jörg Zeuner, Chief Economist at KfW Group. "A good two-thirds of
employees in the country and almost 90% of trainees today work at
SMEs. Still, as the 2016 training year begins, we expect to see a
slight decline in the number of trainees at mid-sized companies".

Overall, 13% of SMEs in Germany have trainee programmes. The
general rule is: the smaller the business, the fewer trainees it
takes on. This is why companies in the manufacturing sector, in which
larger SMEs are more prevalent than in other industries, quite often
have training programmes (28%). Manual training is the only area to
break through the size barrier; the numerous small skilled trade
companies in Germany offer a much larger percentage of
apprenticeships than average. Consequently, the share of skilled
trade companies with trainee programmes is at 24% almost twice as
high as that of the other mid-sized companies.

The large number of immigrants draws attention to the so-called
"transition area", which is meant to improve the opportunities for
young people without an apprenticeship through job preparation
measures or catch up by obtaining school-leaving certificates. For
the first time in ten years, the official statistics in 2015 showed a
rise in new entries in the transition area to 271,000 - a 7% increase
over 2014. Finally, many young refugees need intensive job
preparation in combination with language and integration lessons.

"The integration of refugees is currently one of the greatest
challenges facing our job training system in Germany", says KfW Chief
Economist Zeuner. "Rarely has there been a better time to reinforce
the transition area as a vital bridge between school and training".

Read more about the latest special analysis from the KfW SME Panel
at: www.kfw.de/fokus (only in german language).

Contact:
KfW, Palmengartenstr. 5 - 9, 60325 Frankfurt
Communication Dept., Christine Volk,
Phone: +49 (0)69 7431 3867, Fax: +49 (0)69 7431 3266,
E-Mail: christine.volk@kfw.de, Internet: www.kfw.de

Original Content von: KfW, übermittelt durch news aktuell