The surprise came on Friday afternoon and was announced as good news in a press release. Minister of Education Michael Piazolo (free voters) announced “with joy” that career entry support would be secured for another year. Especially in the district of Munich, where many have campaigned for this with a petition from the Unterschleißheim middle school, among other things, there is relief. But the joy is by no means as unclouded as in the ministry: Kerstin Grillmeier, who supports students at the middle school in the difficult transition to working life, complains that the program is apparently only supposed to continue with interruptions in January 2023. There is no permanent solution.
The Unterhachinger Greens deputy Claudia Koehler warns because of such open questions against a “deceptive package”. The education policy spokesman for the Free Voters, Tobias Gotthardt, says, on the other hand, that they now want to further develop and improve the program. The Free Voters had declared that they had only supported the initially decided end of the program for reasons of coalition with the CSU.
Career starters Kerstin Grillmeier and Vivian Tajtelbaum are struggling with the program. You and five of your students took the time to come to the Unterschleißheim middle school on a sunny day during the Easter holidays. “The three of us,” says 14-year-old Lea, pointing to herself and the other two girls, “want to go to childcare school. Ms. Grillmeier and Ms. Tajtelbaum helped us register.” Without help she would have been completely overwhelmed, she admits to the approval of her classmates. It would be unfair and a shame, says 15-year-old Alina, if future generations didn’t get this support.
Kerstin Grillmeier (right) and Vivian Tajtelbaum (front left) report with students from the Unterschleißheim middle school why the program is so important.
(Photo: Florian Peljak/Florian Peljak)
Together with their two supervisors, they had studied for important exams. They received help in compiling application documents and were prepared for the time after school. Alex, who later wants to become a car mechanic, is also of the opinion: “I think this help should continue!”
This is supposed to happen now. Minister of Education Piazolo has “found a way” in negotiations with the Federal Employment Agency, as he writes, to continue the program together and to secure 50/50 financing for 2022/2023. Claudia Köhler, who has been campaigning for a continuation of the program for a long time, assumes, according to statements from the ministry, that it will not start until the beginning of 2023. She insists on funds to be able to implement the “start and first internships this autumn and winter”.
Career starter Kerstin Grillmeier is also irritated by the fact that new students will probably not be accepted into the three-year program in autumn 2022 as usual. Some students already have internships in December. Everything was prepared well in advance in close exchange with parents, students, teachers and companies. She considers arguments that the later start of the program should make it possible to address students and make contacts to be advanced. That happened a long time ago, she says. Rather, there was now a risk of loss of earnings for career starters with fixed-term contracts. She asks, “Who will pay us from September to January?”
A student is now going to master school
Grillmeier and Tajtelbaum are currently looking after 25 students each. Among them are often children with a refugee or migration background, says Grillmeier. These often lack support from home. Not because the parents didn’t want to help, she says emphatically, but because they sometimes couldn’t because of the language barrier. Things that are common practice for one person, such as converting documents into PDF or phoning companies correctly, would have to be worked out together. The intensive individual support from the 8th grade until the probationary period of the apprenticeship has had great success.
Grillmeier has particularly fond memories of the case of one student: “For a long time it didn’t look like things could go well for him. He had extremely bad grades and his behavior was difficult,” she says. “He had disciplinary proceedings, was expelled from school for two weeks and received a complaint from the vice-principal.” She learned with this student and sent applications until he got an apprenticeship as a painter and varnisher. Now, years later, he got in touch again and asked for help in writing a new CV – this time for the master school.
Tajtelbaum describes a similar case. She accompanied a student who lived in difficult circumstances at home and did not have the opportunity to study there. He was particularly interested in computer science. An industry that, as Tajtelbaum knows, is difficult to get into with an intermediate degree. “We learned math together during the holidays and he got tutoring. Before that he had a five and then suddenly an one,” says Tajtelbaum. Now he is starting an apprenticeship as an IT specialist for system integration.
From the point of view of the pedagogues, career entry support is now all the more necessary because Ukrainian refugees are coming to the classes. “One of the classes we take care of,” says Tajtelbaum, “already has four refugees from Ukraine in addition to Syrian and Afghan refugees.”