When the telephone rings, Cihan Sevim picks up the receiver and greets the customer. Very professional, like a real bank advisor. Yet Cihan Sevim has been a Commerzbank apprentice for only a year. He is not yet allowed to conduct consultations with customers on his own, but here at the branch the 21-year old learns the practical knowledge he needs for his future occupation.
The necessity of the college degree is beginning to be questioned. With youth unemployment in Europe at 24 per cent in 2013 and thousands of graduates coming out of university every year without jobs to go into, there is an increasing feeling that there is a missing link somewhere between education and employment.
Technological development has long since engulfed also the field of modern two-wheeled vehicle technology. The sales of bicycles with an electric motor are rapidly increasing; the so-called e-bikes and pedelecs are very much in vogue. The share of electronic systems in motorcycles likewise steadily increases. The manufacturing, trading and crafts businesses working with this kind of vehicle technology urgently need skilled staff with corresponding qualifications.
There is little money for artistic training in Tunisia; the country has neither sufficient teachers nor schools. This is about to change. An academy for dance in Dresden co-operates with the North African country.
The new regulation reflects the modern demands placed on the occupation. With their work, galvanisers protect assets worth billions from corrosion. Innovation is one of their strengths. This must be reflected also in the master craftsman examination of the galvanising trade.
The Professional and Vocational Qualifications Assessment Law (BQFG) also permits competences acquired by informal and non-formal means to be taken into account in checking the equivalence of a foreign professional or vocational qualification with a German professional or vocational qualification.
About a million euro is allocated each year to successful participants of master craftsman courses and advanced training in the crafts by way of the master craftsman bonus. This is why the chamber of crafts perceives the bonus as a success.
Previously, by far the greater part of the working population was trained within the dual system and its focus on practical application. Now, half of all school graduates continue with an academic education focusing on theory. The industry in the Federal State of Hesse therefore demands adaptation of the education system to the current requirements after having remained the same for decades.
Turning and milling apprentices from all across Germany competed in the "WorldSkills Germany" professional skills competition in late September. This year, the event was hosted at AMB, the international exhibition for metalworking. The two winners, Tim Zelmer from Gildemeister and Patrick Aiple from Chiron, will represent Germany at the WorldSkills global competition in São Paulo in 2015.
