Only small numbers of trainees from afar, but major interest from companies

According to the results of a company survey conducted by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) are displaying considerable interest in the topic of “training mobility”. They believe that spatial mobility on the part of young people is important and view the recruitment of trainees from more distant regions as an increasingly significant instrument to cover their requirements for skilled workers. Although companies are prepared to support trainee mobility to a certain extent, it is also clear that there needs to be a focus on raising awareness of and making greater use of existing funding opportunities.
The individual findings of the survey, which was carried out under the “Reference Company System”, show that the willingness of SME’s to provide support is clearly aligned towards “non-material” assistance such as flexible leave regulations to facilitate journeys home and individual help in the case of company, school or personal difficulties. By way of contrast, companies are less prepared to offer financial benefits such as travel subsidies, rent allowances or payment of removal costs.

Training markets in Germany are characterised by regional aspects. Young people do not always live in areas where their preferred training occupation is offered or where there is a sufficient supply of training places. The companies surveyed confirm that supra-regional recruitment could contribute towards balancing out these matching problems and provide support to companies with declining numbers of applicants as well as assisting young people who are seeking to enter training. 62.6% of respondents believe that such supra-regional recruitment is important. 82.5% believe that in five years’ time mobility will be an important instrument for securing a supply of skilled workers.

Notwithstanding this, the 2012 BIBB School Leaver Survey revealed that only 11.7% of young people currently in training had made an application to a company more than 100 kilometres outside their local area. 15.8% of young people not in training at the time when the survey was conducted but intending to enter training had made a supra-regional application.

“This shows that young people must be given more encouragement to become more mobile and to apply for training places outside their home region”, stressed BIBB President Friedrich Hubert Esser. “Work on the attitude of young people towards mobility also needs to take place whilst they are still at school. At the same time, small and medium-sized companies need to be made more aware of the possibility of acquiring trainees from outside their own region.” About two in three SME‘s do not seek trainees beyond a radius of 20 kilometres. Around a third are prepared to extend this range up to 100 kilometres, whereas only 5% of companies are willing to expand the search area to a radius in excess of 100 kilometres.

The BIBB survey reveals that companies feel that they do not receive sufficient information on provision to support the regional mobility of trainees. Six in ten SME’s stated that they were “badly informed or not informed at all” or else had “little information”. Awareness of existing funding opportunities is too low, and more use could be made of such provision. Three in four SME’s responded that they were not aware of the existence of assisted living accommodation for young people. Half of the companies had not heard of financial support measures such as the vocational education and training subsidy. One in three were familiar with the subsidy but had not yet made use of it. “The concepts are in place”, continued BIBB President Esser. “The focus, however, needs to be on rolling out these concepts and implementing them in practice. This is a task for all stakeholders involved in vocational education and training.”

The “JOBSTARTER plus” programme, which is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and run by the JOBSTARTER Programme Office housed at BIBB, addresses the topic of “interregional mobility” within its funding guidelines under the project title of “Development and piloting of interregional cooperation agreements to compensate for disparities in regional training markets – Networks for matching and mobility”. Selected projects aimed at fostering mobility will be piloted from January 2015. Further information is available at www.jobstarter.de .

Background information

The Reference Company System operated by BIBB is a regular survey of approximately 1,200 companies on current topics relating to company-based vocational education and training.
For further information, please visit www.bibb.de/rbs.

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