Involvement of Companies in Germany

It is the decision of a company to offer training places. Once they make this decision, they have to comply with the regulations of the Vocational Training Act. There are various measures and initiatives to support companies in their training engagement.

Reasons for involvement in training

In Germany, there is a long-standing tradition of training in private sector companies of all sizes. An important reason for companies to engage in training is to secure a skilled workforce for the future. Many employers also consider training as their social responsibility and take pride in their training engagement. Chambers, for example, offer their companies providing training a “Recognized Training Company” certificate, stickers with the logo “We train!” and the use of the logo on their web pages. Willingness to train also depends on the economic situation of the company and on the wider economy.

Employers as social partners

Employers play an active part in the development of the dual apprenticeship system in a systemic way. As part of the social partnership, they are represented at all levels of the system.

• At the national level, employer representatives are members of the Board, advising the Government regarding vocational education and training.
• At the Federal State level, the employer representatives participate in the Federal State Boards for Vocational Education and Training.
• At the local level employers, are engaged in the Vocational Education and Training Committees of the chambers and in the examination committees for the single occupations.
• For the development of training regulations, the social partners appoint occupational experts among their members.

Legal requirements for companies providing training

In order to be able to train under the apprenticeship scheme, companies need to prove that they are suitable as a training facility and that they employ qualified in-company trainers. They have to sign a training contract with the apprentice. Before the training starts, the company has to develop an in-company training plan that fulfils the requirements of the training regulation. These formal prerequisites are monitored by the chambers.

Training contract (Ausbildungsvertrag)

The contract between learner and employer is governed by the labour legislation unless specified otherwise in the Vocational Training Act, which means that in principle the learner has the status of an employee. However, the Vocational Training Act assigns some specific rights and duties to the apprentices. Apprentices have the duty to develop their professional competence and to contribute to the successful completion of the training programme, in particular by performing training tasks as instructed and attending training measures they are assigned to. Apprentices are entitled to paid leave in order to attend their classes at the VET school as well as external courses, if applicable.

Any employer who hires a person for the purpose of apprenticeship is obliged to conclude an apprenticeship contract with that person. The contract, which must be in writing, must specify the occupation in which the learner is to be trained and draw up a training schedule (in-company training plan). 
Moreover, it must include provisions on the training period, working and training hours, training measures outside the company (if any), salary and paid leave.

The apprenticeship contract is concluded between the employer (training enterprise) and the learner. According to the Vocational Training Act, apprenticeship contracts are a special type of contract to which the provisions of the Labour Code apply ‘unless specified otherwise’.
 

Support for companies providing training

The training counsellors of the chambers provide support and give advice to training companies. If a company is not able to cover the entire necessary training content, it can send its apprentices to courses at inter-company vocational training centres. There is also the option to form a training alliance with other companies. Both these approaches can be supported through public funding.

There are also various public programmes that are designed to

• help young people with the transition into an apprenticeship including coaching during their first year in the apprenticeship (the career coaches special programme);
• help SMEs to fill their vacant training places with suitable trainees;
• fund and support model projects e.g. to support companies that are training apprentices with heterogeneous prerequisites and to foster the quality of in-company training in SMEs;
• fund projects that offer external training management for SMEs, to acquire self-employed workers with migration background to offer training, to increase mobility of future apprentices and to help companies to recruit university dropouts for apprenticeships (Jobstarter Plus);
• prevent dropouts with volunteer mentoring of vulnerable apprentices or through support during training.

In addition, there are government funded internet platforms that support in-company trainers and members of the examination committees or offer information to facilitate transitions between training and employment.