It feels wrong and yet it has become the new normal: high school graduates who have to do without their graduation ceremony. Freshmen who have not yet seen the inside of their university. Apprentices who take their first steps into the professional world in the home office.
Young people between the ages of 14 and 25 are often referred to as the “Generation Corona”. Because, says the childhood and youth researcher Klaus Hurrelmann, they experience the state of emergency in a “highly sensitive phase of life in which many courses are set for personal development”.
Not only did they have to forego travel, friends and parties. The pandemic also throws clubs between their legs when planning their professional careers: no training and university fairs, no face-to-face study advice, exams under epidemic protection conditions. All of that stresses you out. And it is not without consequences for this group of young people.
Historic low in the number of new training contracts
For the study “Young Germans 2021”, Hurrelmann and the economist Simon Schnetzer asked 1,600 people between 14 and 39 years of age to assess their financial, academic or professional situation and their prospects for the future. 30 percent describe it as deteriorated. Younger people see it more black: 37 percent of respondents under the age of 25 expect a deterioration. In the 25 plus generation it is only 25 percent. The explanation for this is obvious: the elderly have mostly already mastered the critical transitions between school, university, training and professional life. The younger ones still have these hurdles ahead of them.
Such self-assessments are supported by worrying figures from the training market: According to the Federal Statistical Office, 465,200 new training contracts were concluded in 2020, around nine percent less than in the previous year – an all-time low since the statistics began. The number of applicants looking for an apprenticeship through employment agencies and job centers even fell by twelve percent. Presumably because there was a lack of classic career guidance.
Detlef Scheele, head of the Federal Employment Agency, announced in May of this year: “During the pandemic, our advisors can hardly or not at all go to schools to hold career orientation events. This has consequences: the young people do not come into contact with us as usual and get advice. ” So is the Corona generation really left behind when it comes to careers?
Not in broad terms, says Dieter Dohmen, director of the Berlin Research Institute for Educational and Social Economics: “Most of them will make their way, maybe with a little delay.” Fortunately, the Corona generation still benefits from the shortage of skilled workers: The retiring generation of baby boomers can only be balanced out with the next generation with great difficulty. Dohmen sees difficulties for those who had to fear for their professional future even without Corona: young people without sufficient German language skills, with no or poor school-leaving qualifications.
The transitional system that is supposed to improve the unemployment statistics
According to the data report on the Vocational Training Report 2019, 800,000 young people are interested in an apprenticeship, but 250,000 of them cannot find a training place according to the National Education Report of 2020. They end up in the so-called transition system, a school offer that is supposed to bring them closer to a higher school qualification or an apprenticeship.
“But that doesn’t mean that your chances in life will improve as a result,” says Dohmen. He calls the transitional system a “parking lot”, the primary function of which is to improve the unemployment statistics. Because young people in school are not included in it. This transition system, which already covers every third secondary school student, two out of three secondary school students and practically the entire year of young people without a secondary school certificate, will probably continue to grow.
The virus is also to blame for this. Because according to the results of various studies, its influences on our education system are cumulative: In closed daycare centers, there is no teaching of language skills and preschool knowledge. The elementary schools – which are technically much worse positioned than the secondary educational institutions – have greater problems keeping contact with the pupils and are accordingly less able to absorb these deficits. After changing schools, this logic continues: it is most likely the grammar schools that can offer equivalent lessons, both in terms of technical equipment and didactic qualifications.
The experiences during the pandemic lead to scarring
In addition, high school students tend to come from educational backgrounds where parents are able to support their children. The universities, on the other hand, with large data centers and a well-developed Internet presence for operation in lockdown are much better positioned than vocational training. As a result, Corona hits those hardest who are already disadvantaged.
In addition, there is a psychological burden with a broad impact. This was recorded by the representative Copsy study (“Corona and Psyche”) by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Of the children and adolescents surveyed here, 40 percent describe a reduced quality of life. In previous studies with the same sample, it was only 15 percent. Above all, it is the feeling of loss of control over their own life that they have to struggle with according to the “Young Germans” study.
Co-author Klaus Hurrelmann estimates that 20 to 30 percent of a year group have to struggle with negative experiences in their development even without a pandemic. In combination with the exceptional situation in 2020 and 2021, this could lead to scarring for the following phases of life. Expect fear of exams or blockages in the further development of the life path.
“That’s why,” says Hurrelmann, “companies have to take special care of young people who are a little more fragile.” With the appropriate support, there would be great opportunities here to meet the need for skilled workers in spite of everything.