When Maya Scheel talks about her work, she sounds genuinely enthusiastic. “Craftsmanship is something incredibly beautiful,” says the journeyman bricklayer on the phone, “I want to show people that.” And that’s what she does. The 22-year-old lives near Bad Brückenau in Lower Franconia, and in addition to her work in construction, she is a craft influencer: on Instagram, she shares insights into her everyday working life, which more than 4,200 people follow. For example, Scheel demonstrates how a vibrating plate works – or she explains why more women should go into crafts. “Maybe that will take away some girls’ fear that I had back then,” says the 22-year-old. Because working in construction has a bad reputation, especially among women. She was also advised against it. But the fact that she trained as a bricklayer anyway was “the best decision” ever.
If it were up to entrepreneurs, more people like Scheel would be happy to opt for vocational training. The shortage of skilled workers has long since become a shortage of apprentices. The new training year starts in September, and this time too, many companies will be left without apprentices. According to the Bavarian employment agencies, there were recently 63 applicants for 100 training positions. The economy is increasingly courting these few people where the staff of tomorrow are quite naturally active: online.
Seen in this way, Scheel is a kind of doubly rare species. She is a young skilled worker, the kind that would be needed on many Bavarian construction sites – and she knows how to present her work in a way that is effective for the public. She is part of the “Macher gesucht!” campaign, in which young craftsmen and women report online about their jobs. From Scheel’s point of view, Instagram is perfect for reaching other people: simple, direct, fast. However, she tries to keep her distance from glossy images that some companies like to produce. Instead, she sometimes shows herself with splashes of mud on her uniform. “Being dirty is part of it,” says Scheel, “a construction site is dirty.” The fact that people there work “completely made up, completely styled” is not the reality. She does not want to convey a false image of her profession.
However, the economy agrees that real images or at least convincing ones are needed. The first figures for the start of training are certainly positive; in the Bavarian skilled trades, for example, they speak of a good 3.5 percent more training contracts being concluded than in 2023; in the area of the chambers of industry and commerce, the increase is one percent. Nevertheless, there is a shortage of people in many places. According to the Trade Day, the need is particularly great in the construction industry, the food industry and sales, among others. In addition, around 34,000 companies are looking for new bosses in the next five years. The main reason is demographic change, with fewer young people coming out of school than older people retiring. At the same time, digitalization cannot step into the breach everywhere. Office work can sometimes be outsourced to algorithms. But laying tiles or caring for people? Difficult, at least for now. It requires hands and sometimes heart.
Butchers have a podcast, florists are on YouTube
The key word is therefore recruiting young talent, especially online. Influencers like Scheel are just one approach. The butcher trade, for example, launched a podcast a few years ago entitled “Now there’s beef!” The Rosenheim carpenters’ guild gathers information about the profession online under the slogan “Guild creates the future”. And on YouTube, the florists’ association has uploaded short clips in which young talent describe their everyday working lives. Many companies also advertise special benefits online – from internal trainee programs to access to a company car.
How well the message is received is another question. According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, companies and applicants often talk past each other. According to the study, a good 70 percent of companies use Facebook to provide information about their training opportunities – but young people are rarely found in this network. They are more active on YouTube, Instagram or Tiktok. Another problem is sometimes the companies themselves. Where apprentices are not valued enough or are assigned to tasks that are not related to their training, enthusiasm drops, as surveys of the German Trade Union Confederation’s youth show.
A bad word about the job can sometimes have a greater impact than the image campaigns have previously built up. Experts in associations and chambers also point out how important digital marketing is for reaching young people. However, in order to convince them, experience in the analog world is usually the deciding factor. School internships, for example, are still considered an important part of recruiting young talent. If the taster period goes well, the chance of being able to welcome a new trainee later increases.
Scheel thinks that many companies could be more confident about digital than before. “It’s 2024,” she says, “you have to keep up with the times a bit.” She herself wants to continue promoting the trades: she receives so much positive feedback, which encourages her. But she is particularly pleased that two women have now started working as bricklayers in the company she works for. Has she inspired them? Scheel says: “Maybe a little.”