Actually, the "Alliance for Training and Further Education" wanted to reduce the number of young people without vocational qualifications; to 8 percent by 2018. But the reality is different. The number increases. In Cologne, many agencies have pulled together to help these people find a job after all. Also in the skilled trades.
Both sides are helped: Despite a depleted market for skilled workers, Frank Ruckes (right) and Vito Iacona (center) have gained a new journeyman in Umut Ayaz (left) through the Cologne education model and his first real job. – © Joachim Gies
- Recognition: Skilled workers in a roundabout way
14.2 percent of 20- to 34-year-olds are without a vocational qualification, the 2019 vocational training report shows. Only private households were counted in the process. Refugees in reception facilities are not included in the statistics.
Umut Ayaz has experienced first-hand what it means not to have a vocational qualification. For years he has been 1-Euro job shimmied to a 1-euro job. At the age of 29, he realized that he didn’t want to go on like this. "Until then, I hadn’t considered an apprenticeship worth pursuing," admits the now 33-year-old; he was aiming for a high school diploma and a university degree, but without success. The fact that his advisor at the job center recommended the "Cologne Education Model" became a turning point for him.
Cologne training model as a role model
Since 2014, KoBi has been helping 25- to 35-year-olds obtain vocational qualifications, so far only in Cologne. Other regions have already shown interest in the model. The difficulty lies in the fact that many different jobs are available Pulling together must. In Cologne, the industry, skilled trades, employers’ associations, trade unions, city, job center, Federal Employment Agency, Diakonie and Kolpingwerk.
Participants take it in turns to learn in workshops, at school and in internship companies. Everyone has a Coach to the side, if necessary there support lessons. The costs are covered by Education vouchers of the employment office are covered.
Profiling, modules and a regular sense of achievement
To get started, everyone completes six weeks of profiling. The interested parties go through Aptitude tests And learn about different professions. Anyone who is accepted by the KoBi and wants to continue can Step by step to a full vocational qualification come.
The training content corresponds to the training framework plan, but is divided into individual modules. After each module, the relevant chamber checks competencies and issues participants with an Certificate of their partial qualification from.
Better chances on the labor market
"Even if someone doesn’t manage to complete all the modules, they have improved their chances on the job market with these certificates," says Ulla Schlottow, explaining the advantage of the modular structure. But the project coordinator at the Cologne Chamber of Skilled Crafts is also proud of those who make it to graduation. "These people always inspire me. Many even have Above-average grades", she says. In the process, candidates in the External examination nothing given. They are given the same tasks as everyone else.
Participants are allowed to take breaks between modules, but only a few take advantage of this: "Most want to follow through once they have begun. Many see it as their last chance," observes Schlottow.
Support measure also helps trades
Umut Ayaz also sat out only once for a month, and from then on he purposefully went through one module after the other. The feedback from his internship companies was an incentive for him: "’When you’re done, apply to us,’ they told me," Ayaz remembers.
Since April, he now has his first full-time permanent position at Metallbau Anton Krupp. The ten-man company in the east of Cologne trains apprentices itself. "But it’s not easy to get motivated people," says master metalworker Frank Ruckes. When trainees don’t keep their report books, skip vocational school and don’t show up for inter-company training, it becomes difficult for him: "They have to show initiative, because they run with the day-to-day business."
The close coaching of support measures takes some of the burden of care off the companies. Ruckes and his partner Vito Iacona have already taken on several young people in training who came to them from a support program. Ruckes is pleased that they have now even received a fully trained journeyman through the Cologne training model: "We already knew him through his internships. We knew that he would fit into the team and that he was reliable."
KoBi in numbers
Nine professions are offered in the Cologne education model:
- Carpenter
- Building construction workers
- Bricklayers
- Metal worker
- Cook
- Skilled worker in the hospitality industry
- Machine and plant operator
- Warehouse clerk
- Salesman
869 people have started profiling since the beginning of 2014. 64 percent of them entered the qualification modules. By May 2019, 115 had passed their final exams, and 28 are currently in the last module. 184 participants have passed one to nine partial qualifications to date (as of May 2019).