Training maturity

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The level of development of young people who are ready for vocational training with regard to their intellectual and social development is referred to as training maturity. This cognitive and social maturity includes the competence to meet the demands of training and the professional world. It is unclear to whom the authority to judge whether a young person is “ready for training” or not, how big the gray area between “training mature” and “not training mature” is and how flexible the assessment criteria are.

In 2006, the Federal Employment Agency defined the term training maturity as follows:

A person can be designated as ready for training if they meet the general characteristics of educational and work ability and meet the minimum requirements for entry into vocational training. The specific requirements of individual professions, which are used to assess suitability for the respective profession ( professional suitability ), are disregarded . A lack of training maturity at a given point in time does not rule out that it can be achieved at a later point in time.

The condition of the lack of training maturity is more extensive than that of the mere non-suitability for a certain profession. The diagnosis “lack of training maturity” describes the inability of the person assessed to learn any profession.

Concrete criteria for training maturity

In the National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Workers in Germany, concluded in 2004 , a catalog of criteria was drawn up, which schools and skilled workers such as B. should help the career advisors of the employment agencies to assess the training maturity. The criteria apply as minimum standards for starting vocational training:

  • Basic school knowledge (e.g. reading, writing, mathematical and economic basic knowledge)
  • Psychological performance characteristics (e.g. language ability , logical thinking, memory, processing speed, spatial imagination)
  • Physical characteristics (e.g. age-appropriate level of development and health requirements)
  • Psychological characteristics of work behavior and personality (e.g. perseverance and frustration tolerance, communication, criticism and conflict skills, independence)
  • Vocational choice (e.g. self-assessment and information skills)

These criteria are specified in more detail by characteristics and indicators and supplemented with procedures for determination in order to be able to recognize the training maturity of young people. In the catalog of criteria, for example, the field of psychological characteristics of work behavior and personality is defined in more detail as follows:

Characteristic: stamina, tolerance to frustration

Description: The young person is able to pursue a goal or a task within a reasonable period of time, even against internal and external resistance and in the event of failure.

Indicators / criteria:

  • He / she does not end a given task until it has been completely fulfilled.
  • He / she fulfills tasks and goals that require continuous work.
  • She / he appropriately pursues a goal / task with renewed effort if temporary difficulties arise or initial successes fail.
  • He / she can recognize external difficulties, setbacks and stressful events / experiences and develop possible solutions.
  • She / he can reflect on internal resistance and overcome it constructively.

Procedure for determining:

  • Diagnostic interview
  • Self-assessment
  • Top notes in the certificate
  • Statements from teachers or parents

Sample questions:

  • How much time do you spend doing homework every day?
  • When you do a task e.g. B. Can't solve maths, how do you act?
  • Suppose you have a class test B. If you get back in English with a disappointing result, what does this do for you?
  • Do you take part in working groups at school, if so which one and how long have you been participating?

In addition to the National Pact for Training and Young Skilled Workers, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in North Rhine-Westphalia have also defined criteria on the basis of which the training maturity can be determined and refer to them as

  • professional competence,
  • social skills and
  • personal competence

Qualifications and virtues are referred to as training maturity, which all young people should bring with them for an apprenticeship, regardless of their profession, which must therefore be available in advance. If one makes a strict distinction between training maturity and professional suitability, the criteria for training maturity can be limited to social and personal skills. These are i. d. Usually subsumed under the term key qualifications. It is therefore expected that the young people will bring these skills and competencies with them to an apprenticeship and should therefore have already learned them in school and in their private lives. Schools play a central role in this; Above all, they are considered to be responsible if young people are not adequately prepared for working life.

Transition from school to training

School leavers who do not have a training place and / or are not considered ready for training can or must, if they have not completed compulsory schooling and are not attending another secondary school, use the transition system and complete a vocational preparation year. The school-based vocational preparation year (BVJ; in Baden-Württemberg, from the 2007/2008 school year onwards, this is called the career entry year in connection with a conceptual reorientation ) has priority . The employment agencies also offer a vocational training measure (BvB), which has been based on the “Concept for vocational training measures according to § 61 SGB III” (Social Code Third Book - Employment Promotion) since 2004. The core elements of this concept are the various stages that the young people have to go through:

  • Suitability analysis (strengths / weaknesses analysis)
  • Basic level (career orientation / career choice)
  • Support level (basic vocational skills)
  • Transitional qualification (job and company-oriented qualification)

In addition to promoting professional ability to act, formal hurdles such as a missing school leaving certificate or a lack of language skills can also be removed. Socio-educational support and educational support coordinate and document the qualifications of the young people. The development and promotion of key competences is understood as a cross-sectional task that should be promoted across professions. The aim is to impart skills that are considered necessary for taking up vocational training, as well as sustainable integration into the training and / or labor market.

Historical context of the maturity discourse

In the mid-2000s, circles close to the employer sounded the alarm by criticizing the alleged "training immaturity" of many school leavers:

"Around a quarter of all students leave the general education schools today without sufficient qualification for training"

- Deutsche Handwerkszeitung from February 25, 2005

"50 percent of the students are not capable of training"

- Tagesspiegel from March 24, 2005

This criticism was presented at the time when there was a record number of unemployed in Germany and a large number of young people (not just young people who were “not ready for training”) could not find a training place. It is no coincidence that the reforms of the labor market and the welfare state began at this time, known as Agenda 2010 .

The central paradigm shift of the reforms at that time consisted in getting away from the idea that the primary aim was to provide permanent care for the socially disadvantaged. Rather, they must appeal to their own responsibility in the sense of a system of encouragement and demands .

In the context of Agenda 2010, however, a strict (“binary”) distinction was made between employable and disabled. The concept of promoting and demanding through inclusion in the transitional system was and is not applied to people who were classified as so severely " disabled " that they were given the opportunity to work as " people with full disability " in workshops for disabled people (WfbM ) or to be accepted into day care centers , where they could not become unemployed due to a lack of employability on the primary labor market (and are still protected against unemployment today).

In 2016, the President of the Federal Social Court , Peter Masuch , considered the distinction between people with disabilities and those without recognized disabilities to be justified: "While [...] people without disabilities can and must help themselves because of the subordinate status of social assistance, people with disabilities need Support from fellow human beings and society. ”While the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs argued in 2018 that“ for people who go through the entrance and vocational training area of ​​a WfbM, [...] the permanent reduction in earning capacity only after the end of the vocational training area by the WfbM technical committee could be established "and therefore not entitled to a basic allowance exists due to reduced capacity the strongest social court casting on 18 April 2018 that even with people who are going through the entrance and vocational training of a sheltered workshop, be deemed to exist a permanent full disability. The Social Court of Giessen does not assess exclusion from the primary labor market as “ exclusion ”, but rather exclusion from drawing basic social security benefits.

Young people who were not classified as “disabled”, on the other hand, should, following the logic of Agenda 2010, be motivated to be more active themselves by the “warning shot” of labeling them as “unable to train” and the consequent exclusion from the apprenticeship market. At the same time, a “transitional system” was developed, which (in the sense of “support”) was supposed to help reduce the specific deficits of those participants who were “unable to train” as far as possible.

Training maturity in the age of inclusion

The Federal Participation Act , which was passed in 2016, is under pressure to enforce the right of people with serious impairments to participate , including in working life. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations , which has for Germany legal force since 2009, provides in Article 27: "States Parties recognize the rights of people with disabilities to work;. this includes the right to the opportunity to earn a living through work that is freely chosen or accepted in an open, inclusive labor market and work environment accessible to people with disabilities. "

The Union for Education and Science (GEW) claims that after the UN Convention was signed, "[e] a binary categorization of people into those with 'disabilities', ' disadvantages ' or ' qualifications ' or 'special needs'" and those without these characteristics are "impossible". This also made individualizing ascriptions such as “disabled”, “disadvantaged” and thus “not ready for training” unnecessary. The debate on reforming the transition system in vocational schools could therefore not be conducted separately from the inclusion debate. This point of view is opposed to the regulation of Section 19 (1) SGB ​​III , according to which " learning disabled " (together with other people with disabilities) also belong to the group of people whose participation in professional life must be encouraged by the state. However, young people who have not been certified as having a disability do not enjoy this privilege.

The question of whether, in practice, the promotion of the disadvantaged despite the above sharp demarcation between employable and disabled, the term "inclusive vocational training" should only be applied to young people with a certified disability or to all young people who fail in the training market. The parliamentary group of the Left demanded on May 11, 2016: “Inclusion in vocational training must aim to give young people with and without disabilities and regardless of other disadvantages that arise from their specific living conditions or individual situation the same right to professional training - and have further training. ”Ruth Enggruber and Joachim Gerd Ulrich warn that“ the implementation of a broad understanding of inclusion […] would involve such fundamental institutional changes that considerable skepticism and resistance with regard to its political feasibility would be expected ”.

Also in view of the fact that since the mid-2010s many companies in Germany have occasionally not received any applications for vacant training positions, 80 percent of the companies surveyed by the German Industry and Trade Day declared in 2017 that they were willing to give training opportunities to young people with less learning skills and to give them to give tutoring in the company. Stefan Sell explains this with the fact that the expectations of the economy with regard to the "maturity" of the applicants are not constant, but adapt to the situation on the job market. However, there is hardly any commitment on the part of private companies to train young people to become skilled practitioners in a kind of “light teaching” . Such training courses are almost exclusively offered by the state.

Problems with the term “maturity”

The term “ripeness” is mainly used in biology: under normal conditions, fruits ripen when the time comes, and most children (except those who die prematurely) also reach puberty through the mere passage of time. The assumption that training maturity also arises over time (even if it may be delayed) by itself, and that young people “training immaturity” are only late developers, is, however, assessed by many as a biological fallacy. The absurdity of this assumption is shown by the fact that z. For example, a lack of spelling and arithmetic skills never "came about by itself" but had to be actively acquired. The same applies to other symptoms of inadequate training. “[T] he apprenticeship [should] create a maturity for something,” emphasizes Stefan Sell.

Achim Gilfert criticizes the practice of assessing training maturity by the employment agencies: The judgment "ausbildungs ​​(un) mature" "is not a statement, but an assignment of training maturity caused by a subjective interpretation of answers, which is subject to various influences (e.g. mood, motivation, individual attitude, previous knowledge [of the questioner] and local framework conditions, such as noise). [...] The assignment cannot be reproduced by different questioners. ”A person to be assessed is therefore not mature, but is certified by an expert opinion or certificate as“ mature ” .

Furthermore, according to Gilfert, “maturity” in connection with examination results is just another word for entitlement to attend an educational institution or to practice a certain profession. “For example, a 'Fachoberschulreife' entitles you to attend a 'Fachoberschule' at which you acquire a 'Fachhochschulreife'. This entitles you to take up a subject-related course of study. ”The “ general university entrance qualification ”associated with a successfully passed Abitur examination (a“ maturity examination ”, Latinized:“ Matura -Examen ”) guarantees neither that the relevant high school graduate is humanly mature, nor that he is able to successfully complete the course he has chosen.

criticism

Unclear or misleading meaning of the term

As early as 2006, the Federal Employment Agency criticized the fact that many companies complained that they were unable to find “suitable applicants” and that they often had no use: “It is not clear why the young people are 'not suitable' - whether it is due to the lack of them Training maturity, lack of suitability for the respective occupation or the specific requirements of the company for the specific position or other, not aptitude-dependent placement obstacles. "

Incorrect equation of the attributes "unusable" and "immature"

Rolf Dobischat u. a. criticize: “It is not (only) about determining what young people can do, what skills they (do not) have when they have left the school system, but what is determined here (above all) is the information provided by companies that a considerable part of the students in the employment system is currently not needed by them, which is then referred to as a general 'unsuitability' of these young people. "

Decrease in performance and mental maturity of young people

The Federal Institute for Vocational Education In 2005, a survey of 500 experts on Lack of training maturity conducted produced the different opinions and theories. The assumption that the proportion of school leavers not ready for training is increasing is widespread. The youth psychiatrist Michael Winterhoff even claimed in 2018 that children and adolescents are generally “psychologically no longer as mature” as they should be in terms of age - no longer ready for kindergarten at three, no longer ready for school at six and no longer at 16 ready for training. ”Social maturity occurs with a time lag in western countries at the present time. In 2018, the American psychologist Jean Twenge sees in her book "Me, My Selfie and I" the main reason for this in the constant use of smartphones in what she calls the "iGeneration". 18-year-olds now behave like 15-year-olds in the past, 13-year-olds like 10-year-olds in the past. They went out less often without their parents, they drank less alcohol, they had sex later and less. Twenge attributes the development delays mainly to the fact that young people who spend a lot of time with their smartphones have too little experience in analogue life.

As early as 2005, however, it was criticized that “there is insufficient empirical evidence for a reduced level of training maturity. Likewise, the employer's investigations do not allow conclusions to be drawn about general performance deficits, since they do not take into account the expansion of competencies in other fields ”.

Critics point to the enormously increased complexity of the world of work, as a result of which the demands in the training professions and the demands of the companies towards the young people have grown. It is expected that employers pick up the young people according to their level of development and prepare them for the job. In 2006 Ruth Enggruber referred to research results which state that inclusive vocational training, in which young people interested in training with poor school qualifications also start vocational training immediately after finishing school, is usually associated with more favorable educational processes than a preceding visit in the transition area.

Misunderstanding of the educational function of trainers

Stefan Sell points out that many older owners of handicraft businesses started their apprenticeships themselves at the age of 14 and were consequently treated “like children” by their teachers at the time. Even today, trainers still have an educational function. "[T] he educational function [...] one has, so to speak, 'defeated' in times of abundance [of applicants for apprenticeships], due to the fact that one could always use the better ones, and now one is thrown back on them again, In my opinion, the very function of in-company training is that especially there, if you think of craft or third-party professions, that the journeymen and the masters are often a substitute for father, that function is a substitute for families, and this function should now come to the fore again come."

Free rider mentality in many companies

The Education and Science Union criticizes the fact that, despite the declarations of intent by business in the 2000s, the proportion of companies in Germany that participate in vocational training fell from 25 to 20 percent between 2011 and 2016. The shrinking of vocational training is "supply-induced" and not due to the fact that the economy does not find any applicants. From the point of view of the German Trade Union Confederation , the companies are still not training enough young people, so that young people without a “training qualification” would de facto find it no easier to get a training position than in the 2000s.

According to this, the claim that applicants who do exist would have to be rejected for lack of training maturity, is often an excuse from companies that would rather employ fully trained specialists than train specialists themselves.

swell

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Employment Agency: National pact for training and young skilled workers in Germany - catalog of criteria for training maturity . Nuremberg 2006, p. 13
  2. ↑ Peter Masuch : What did the UN-CRPD bring for better participation in working life? Speech given at the Werkstättentag in Chemnitz on September 21, 2016 . P. 7 f.
  3. ↑ Disability in the long term . Press office of the social court in Giessen. May 8, 2018
  4. ↑ Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs: Frequently asked questions about the Federal Participation Act. Questions 20 to 38 . January 1, 2018, pp. 32–40
  5. ↑ United Nations: Law on the United Nations Convention of December 13, 2006 on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (PDF file; 264 kB)
  6. ↑ Michael Futterer: Inclusion also in vocational training . GEW Baden-Württemberg. 15th July 2015
  7. ↑ Die Linken: Inclusive Education for All - Implement the expansion of inclusive education in vocational training . Bundestag printed paper 18/8421. P. 2
  8. ↑ Ruth Enggruber / Joachim Gerd Ulrich: What does “inclusive vocational training” mean? Results of a survey of vocational training specialists . Working Group Vocational Training Research Network (AGBFN) of the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB). 2016
  9. ^ German Chamber of Industry and Commerce eV (DIHK) / Training area: Training 2017. Results of a DIHK online company survey . Berlin 2017, p. 5
  10. ^ Stefan Sell: Qualification for training . Federal Agency for Political Education . 2013. Video. 7 minutes
  11. ^ German trade union federation: Training of disabled young people - too seldom in the company . November 5, 2013. p. 1
  12. ^ "Golden times" for those looking for a training place? An interview with Prof. Dr. Stefan Sell . ueberaus.de . September 15, 2015, p. 5
  13. ↑ Achim Gilfert: Qualification for training - a holistic view in the field of tension between theory and practice . BIBB. 2013, p. 11
  14. ↑ Federal Employment Agency: National pact for training and young skilled workers in Germany - catalog of criteria for training maturity . Nuremberg 2006, p. 12f.
  15. ↑ Rolf Dobischat / Gertrud Kühnlein / Robert Schurgatz: Qualification for training - a controversial term for the transition of young people to vocational training . Hans Böckler Foundation . 2012, pp. 18–21 (17–20)
  16. ↑ We are about to gamble away the future . A dispute between the youth psychiatrist Michael Winterhoff and the investor Frank Thelen . " The Star ". Edition 20/2018. May 9, 2018, p. 110
  17. ↑ Firmly under control . Der Spiegel (print edition) . Issue 41/2018. October 6, 2018, p. 47
  18. ↑ Achim Gilfert: Qualification for training - a holistic view in the field of tension between theory and practice . BIBB. 2013, p. 5
  19. ↑ Ruth Enggruber: "Inclusive vocational training" - a key to better educational paths for young people who have completed secondary school . In: Social Progress . 2006
  20. ^ "Golden times" for those looking for a training place? An interview with Prof. Dr. Stefan Sell . ueberaus.de . September 15, 2015, p. 6
  21. ^ Karl-Heinz Reith: The flagship lurches . In: E & W (magazine of the GEW), edition 10/2017, p. 18f.
  22. ↑ Matthias Anbühl: No suitable applicants? - How the public training statistics conceal the situation on the training market: DGB brief analysis of the BA statistics for the training year 2016 . Berlin 2016, p. 2