According to the Federal Employment Agency, more than 240,000 training places are unfilled at the start of the 2019 training year - the highest figure in the past ten years. In mechanical engineering, 34,000 training positions in technical professions are currently unfilled, compared to 21,000 unplaced applicants - a calculated gap of 13,000. Jörg Friedrich, Head of the Education Department at VDMA, sees the reasons for this development in the declining number of school leavers and the simultaneous trend towards studying.

Above-average training rate in mechanical engineering

Friedrich emphasizes that this is not due to a lack of will on the part of companies. The mechanical and plant engineering sector trains an above-average number of young people. At 6.1%, the training rate in mechanical engineering is above the mark for the economy as a whole (6%) for the 17th year in a row. The rate is therefore also significantly higher than the average for the manufacturing industry (4.9% in December 2018). The association's own surveys show that the companies organized in the VDMA are particularly committed to training. The average training rate there is as high as 7%. Compared to other industrial sectors, mechanical engineering also has one of the highest rates of companies providing training. 40.8% of mechanical engineering companies provided training in 2018. In the economy as a whole, this figure was 32.3 %.

Modernization of training occupations

In order to get more trainees interested in dual technical vocational training, the VDMA supports its member companies in attracting suitable young talent and further increasing the attractiveness of vocational training. The association sees the modernization of job profiles and the adaptation of teaching methods and content of vocational training to digitalization as an important building block for this. Last year, together with social partners, it updated a total of eleven training regulations for industrial metal and electrical professions and adapted them to the new qualification requirements of Industry 4.0. "We are currently working together to update the IT professions," says Friedrich. These are becoming increasingly important for mechanical engineering.