Recent Developments
Austria has a comparatively low youth unemployment rate. One of the reasons for this is the high-quality vocational education and training system. However, the VET system faces new challenges due to demographic change, a decreasing number of companies providing training, a looming shortage of skilled workers and integration problems of young people from a migrant background and an increasing number of dropouts from apprenticeship training. Initiatives to counteract these challenges are obligatory training until the age of 18, the inclusion of quality management in the Vocational Training Act, and coaching and counselling for apprentices and training companies.
There are a couple of challenges the Austrian VET system is facing right now.
In 2021, Austria had the sixth lowest youth unemployment rate (15–24 year olds) in the EU-27 countries (cf. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/UNE_RT_A__custom_4006215/default/table). Between 2012 and 2021, the rates slightly increased (from 10% in 2012 to 11% in 2021), while the EU-27 average decreased between 2012 (24.4%) and 2021 (16.6%).
The total number of apprentices decreased between 2010 and 2017 (as did the number of companies offering apprenticeships places). This trend was halted in 2018 and 2019, but numbers shrank slightly in the following years due to the Covid-19 crisis. The main reason – but not the only reason – is demographic change. At the same time, the looming shortage of skilled workers is becoming more and more apparent.
Two groups of young people deserve specific attention. Those from a migrant background have to be better integrated, especially into the apprenticeship system. The second such group consists of those finding it difficult to remain in the education and training system – the potential or real dropouts.
In order to deal with these challenges and to keep and increase the quality of the vocational education and training system, a couple of initiatives and statutory regulations have been developed. Three of them are mentioned here as follows.
Obligatory training until the age of 18
In 2013, the Austrian government introduced an “education and training guarantee” (Ausbildungsgarantie) up to the age of 18. To make this guarantee possible, more than 11,000 supra-company training places have been created. Financing comes from the Labour Market Service.
In June 2016, a law on obligatory training or education up until this age passed in parliament. Since 2018, there has been an obligation for all young persons under 18 to either stay in school (usually: upper secondary level) or to take part in apprenticeship training (Ausbildungspflicht). Those failing to do so are only penalised in extreme situations. The main idea is to keep young people in the education and training system as long as they need to obtain a qualification higher than that acquired via compulsory schooling.
Quality management in the Vocational Training Act
The 2015 amendment to the Vocational Training Act (Berufsausbildungsgesetz, BAG) made explicit reference to quality assurance and quality management in vocational training for the first time. Since then, there have been a few new goals such as orientation towards competences, keeping occupational profiles up-to-date, permeability between training and education pathways and the international dimension of apprenticeship training. And there are new responsibilities for the development of quality assurance measures and instruments.
Coaching and counselling for apprentices and training companies
In 2012, the Ministry of Economy acted in tandem with the Ministry of Labour to initiate a coaching scheme for apprentices and training companies, which was piloted in 2012 and 2013. Based on the results of an accompanying evaluation, the decision was taken in 2014 to continue with this measure and extend it to the whole of Austria. The measure has been offered nationwide since October 2015.
The coaching programme aims to support apprentices and training companies during training. The goal is to facilitate positive completion of the apprenticeship final exam and to enhance the quality of apprenticeship training, thus counteracting training dropouts in particular.