Retraining as a mechanical engineer at 50? After years of climbing the career ladder, many employees may feel the desire to reorient themselves professionally. In order to make this easier in the future, the federal government wants to remove bureaucratic hurdles and help endangered sectors.
In the future, employees in Germany should be able to take a publicly funded training period for their further training. At the presentation of the national further training strategy in Berlin, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil announced that a draft law would be presented by the end of the year. The instruments for promoting further vocational training should be completely reorganized with the planned law.
“We will introduce a new education period and part-time education,” said the SPD politician. “Employees can take their further training into their own hands and operate it independently,” he explained. “In this way, you can achieve a career change or a better-paying job, for example if you want to move up to hotel management as a trained hotel clerk.”
Further training should also be able to be promoted more by the Federal Employment Agency, similar to short-time work benefits. “We will create an instrument that we call qualification money,” announced Heil. “It’s about companies in which a larger part of the workforce is affected by transformation, especially in parts of mechanical engineering or also at newspaper publishers.”
“We also need perspectives for the employees whose jobs can lead to a dead end due to the change in the previous form,” said Heil. Anyone who can currently assemble an internal combustion engine must also be able to handle new types of drive in the future.
The federal government, employers and trade unions also want to take a look at the low-skilled in particular. “We have to facilitate access to further training, even for those with low qualifications,” said Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger after consultations with the social partners and the Federal Employment Agency (BA). It should be possible to catch up on basic skills such as reading, arithmetic and writing at work.
When it came to the need for new instruments, differences with the Confederation of Employers (BDA) became clear. “We don’t always need something new, sometimes it’s enough to readjust the screws,” said its President Rainer Dulger at the joint press appearance. “We particularly need to reach out to those who are least prepared.”
A 22-page paper was presented to update the national further training strategy agreed in June 2019, which brings together the federal government, the federal states, social partners and the BA. Stark-Watzinger referred to an estimate that by 2030 almost four million employees could change their field of activity. Big changes are imminent for each individual.
