An alliance of Greens, SPD, FDP and ÖDP in the district council is calling for the Munich district to bear a proportion of the costs for securing career start support in the 2022/23 school year. With their application, the four parties want to ensure that the support for students in the transition from school to vocational training can be continued “initially for a limited period of one year”. The background to this is the state government’s announced withdrawal from the funding of the program for the coming school year, which was partially conceded at the weekend by Minister of Education Michael Piazolo (free voters). The Free State now wants to assume 50 percent of the costs of career entry support.
The cancellation or reduction of the program is not only met with criticism from the applicants. Stefan Schelle, Mayor in Oberhaching and CSU parliamentary group leader in the district council, recently said in the district committee that career entry support is enormously important, for example at secondary schools; in his community there have only been positive experiences with the instrument. Therefore, the district politicians must “do it again” if the program is actually no longer financed by the Free State. In addition, it is also about prospects for the employees who professionally accompany the students, should these specialists no longer see any prospects if they were gone.
This earned him the request of the Green member of the state parliament, Markus Büchler, to work towards continuing the program with his CSU parliamentary group. “It was the CSU that didn’t want to extend it,” said Büchler. His parliamentary colleague Claudia Köhler emphasizes that the companies in the district of Munich fought for every single trainee. “It would be absurd to choke off a program that is so well established in the region and tried and tested in the schools or to put it off until next year.” SPD parliamentary group leader Florian Schardt speaks of “botches from the ivory tower” and criticizes the fact that the Free State is again shifting responsibility to the municipalities.
According to his own statement, District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) also hopes that another task will not be municipalized again. Although the state government has assured that career entry support will continue for a year, nobody knows what will happen afterwards. The use of on-site advice has really proven its worth, according to the district administrator. “The more local, the more effective it is in individual cases.” But for this you need money.
The target group of career entry support are primarily children and young people at middle and special schools, often with disabilities and socio-educational support needs. It is important to enable these children to lead a self-determined life, explains ÖDP district councilor Karin Schuster, which also supports equal opportunities in the district of Munich. The use of financial resources is worthwhile for this. Her FDP colleague Katharina Diem refers to the effects of the pandemic that Corona has led to many restrictions, especially for younger people. “You have to support them as best you can and not put obstacles in their way again.”