in the middle
Not all trainees complete their training on the first attempt. The reason for this could be a learning disability. These people find help in facilities such as the youth workshop in Giessen.
A few more steps and Laura has done it and built a box for shoe shine brushes out of a few wooden boards. The 19-year-old is standing at a workbench in the Gießen youth workshop. In the large hall, ten other young people are working at workbenches – sawing and hammering on their projects.
They are all doing their training to become carpenters here in the youth workshop. That didn’t work in one company. Laura sent in a lot of applications, but didn’t get a training place because she has a learning difficulty and therefore doesn’t get good grades at school.
She probably wouldn’t have always been able to keep up with the pace of regular training in a company. That’s why she’s happy to have had a chance at the Gießen youth workshop: “Here the pace of work is adapted to you and not to the assembly.”
Many manage to get into the job
21 trainees are currently being trained, including as carpenters, metal workers and salespeople. Of those who start their training here, around 80 percent complete it successfully and most of them then manage to get into the job.
“We don’t want to train for unemployment, but for the primary labor market,” explains trainer Waldemar Hehn. He is proud to be able to give Laura and the others a second chance. Many of his former trainees have later become self-employed or now work in craft businesses in the region.
Unclear financing
Despite the successes, the financing of the youth workshop is increasingly on shaky ground. It has been a permanent institution in Giessen for over 40 years and supports young people who have had a difficult start in life. But of course that costs money. The youth workshop offerings are largely financed by the Protestant church and the state job centers.
However, both currently have to save money and it is therefore not clear how extensively the Gießen youth workshop can continue to work in the future, explains director Mirjam Aasman: “In the worst case, that would mean that many young people would not be able to make their training a success.”
Second chance for companies too
This means that instead of young people getting training on the second attempt and then finding a job, some would be dependent on social assistance. Marcel thinks that this would mean that the state is making savings in the wrong place. The 39-year-old completed his training as a metal technology specialist in the youth workshop nine years ago. As a teenager he had to break off his first training course, he had problems at home and had to deal with aggression. The youth workshop rebuilt it, he says today.
Marcel now works as a cutting machine operator in a large company in the Gießen district that produces machines for food packaging. A career that he could not have imagined 20 years ago: “At some point my working life was over.”
The youth workshop gave him a second chance to prove himself: During his training, he completed an internship at his current company, which then took him on. Especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers, companies in the region are happy to rely on the young people who have been trained in the youth workshop. For them too, it is a second chance to have offspring.
Laura, who is currently completing her training at the Gießen youth workshop, is hoping for good job prospects. The 19-year-old wants to complete her training next year: “We are always looking for carpenters.” She hopes that there will still be enough money for the youth workshop to give others a second chance.