As every three years, Max Heimerl’s apprentices are building a house on their own. The prospective bricklayers from the first to third year of their apprenticeship study the plans, do the basement work, lay the mains pipes, order concrete, which then has to be installed on time before it hardens. The interior of the “Apprentice House” in Regenstauf is currently being fitted out. “This is one of our most beautiful projects,” says Heimerl, head of a construction company of the same name in Schönthal (Cham district). And one that, according to his description, pays off for everyone involved: for the apprentices, who are happy about so much trust at work and, in the end, more independent – and for the company, among other things as a marketing tool. “The competition for apprentices is more difficult than for customers,” says Heimerl.
Seen in this way, Max Heimerl Bau is in an excellent location. The construction company has found four new bricklayer apprentices – in previous years it was an average of two. Things are not looking so good for many colleagues. In general, Bavarian entrepreneurs have been complaining for a long time about the difficulty in finding new recruits. And the clock is ticking, once again: the weeks from Pentecost to the end of July are considered to be a hot phase, soon the school leavers will disappear in the summer holidays and only reappear in autumn at the start of the training year.
In some places, the consequences of the pandemic have even exacerbated the need for young people. In the past two years, internships and job fairs have been canceled due to the corona virus, and companies and interested parties have had problems even finding out about each other. Since this spring, however, more is possible again, more precisely: “Presence,” says Christian Gohlisch, who is responsible for vocational training at the Chamber of Crafts for Munich and Upper Bavaria. For example, companies could go back to schools and draw attention to themselves. This works better than online platforms and “shows how important career orientation is at school”. Job fairs have also recently taken place across Bavaria.
Due to the pandemic, only parts of the teaching content were taught
The first figures reflect the new old times only to a limited extent. By the end of June, they had 11,548 new apprenticeship contracts with the Bavarian Chambers of Crafts, which corresponds to an increase of 0.2 percent compared to the previous year. In its most recent report, the Regional Directorate of Bavaria of the Employment Agency reported around 56,200 interested people across all sectors, slightly fewer than in 2021. The decline is causing “a little concern,” says the report. It is now important, above all, to reach those “who do not know what they want to do after school; they must not be lost to us”.
But more presence alone is not enough to counteract the lack of young talent. At the start of the 2021/22 training year, Bavaria’s job centers and employment agencies had 15,609 open training positions. Due to all sorts of corona uncertainties, significantly fewer jobs than usual were reported. In addition, in addition to the placement of apprenticeships, the training itself has also suffered from the pandemic in some places. The youth of the German Trade Union Confederation of Bavaria had surveys conducted last year to determine how. According to this, a third of those surveyed were concerned that they would not be able to successfully complete the training: due to the pandemic, only parts of the teaching content had been taught. 24.3 percent of those surveyed even had their training allowance reduced at times, while almost 80 percent had to work up to five hours of overtime a week. Advertising that makes you want to work sounds different.
Demographic change is the biggest problem
The biggest challenge remains demographic change. As a result, more people tend to retire than school leavers move up. Almost all sectors are complaining about the lack of young talent and, in particular, about a lack of skilled workers. Although countermeasures can be taken a little via digitization, in the end it often doesn’t work without people, whether in care or laying tiles. “There will be more vacancies than apprentices again this year,” says Gohlisch. Nevertheless, he sees “positive signals”: It is striking, for example, that more and more people with university entrance qualifications are finding their way into the skilled trades, “a development that you would not believe”. However, grammar school and technical college graduates now make up a good twelve percent of new Bavarian apprentices.
A change in mentality, more social reputation for the professions – that’s what the International Crafts Fair in Munich is also about this week. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) demanded that attending the master school should be free of charge like studying; his state government is also planning a day of crafts in schools. The President of the Bavarian Crafts Day, Franz Xaver Peteranderl, complained about “misconceptions” about how crafts work today. Young people, and women in particular, need to be better informed that they can “implement the energy transition from day one” in the trades. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) also calls it a “clever approach to put the climate crisis at the center of the campaign”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/ you take it seriously”.
Max Heimerl agrees that you have to come up with something in the battle for young talent. This is one of the reasons why each of his apprentices gets a company car. Since most of them are not yet of legal age, the “trainee mobile” is limited to 45 kilometers per hour and can be driven with a moped driver’s license. “It looks cool,” says Heimerl, and the parents were happy if the children didn’t have to ride their mopeds to work in winter. But the most important things from his point of view: appreciation, the will to teach the young people something – and a good reputation. The apprentices all come from the area, says Heimerl, so word gets around quickly, “is this a smart company or not”.