Source: Global Times
A watchmaker for a luxury Swiss watch brand assembles watches. Surveys have shown that there are now fewer and fewer students in Switzerland who are willing to do watchmaking apprenticeships
Aoki, the special correspondent of this newspaper in Germany
Craftsmen are considered the cornerstone of "Made in Germany", but in recent years, more and more young people are reluctant to be a "skilled craftsman" and want to enter higher education institutions. Many European companies face a situation where there is no successor.
In Germany and Switzerland, to become a craftsman, one first needs to enter a vocational school for dual training. After graduating from junior high school, students can enter a 3-year dual vocational school. Lucas, who is currently an apprentice at Audi Motors, told the Global Times reporter that he has 3 weeks of apprenticeships at Audi every month and one week of classes at school. During his apprenticeship, he does not have to pay tuition and fees, medical insurance, etc., and receives a salary of 800 euros per month.
Although companies also spend tens of thousands of euros a year on apprentices, these companies feel that it is worth it, and apprentices can be used as skilled workers as soon as they graduate. In Germany and Switzerland, hundreds of occupations require training in vocational schools for a minimum of two years and a maximum of 3 years, even as a salesman.
However, a October report by the German Employers' Association warned of a shortage of apprentices in all walks of life in Germany, especially in traditional industries such as plumbers and optometrists. In the industrial sector, such as automotive, machinery, chemical and other industries, there is also a lack of apprenticeships. In order to grab apprentices, many companies even attract apprentices by giving gifts such as laptops.
The shortage of apprentices is related to the increasing preference of students for college. Data from the Joint Conference of German University Presidents shows that at the beginning of this century, the proportion of German high school students attending universities was 25%, which is now close to 1/3. Because secondary school students are increasingly inclined to go to university, German universities are also "overcrowded".
Louise, a student at the University of Hamburg in Germany, told reporters that she had previously trained in nursing at a vocational school. But she found that caregivers worked hard and paid little. There is only 2500 euros of pre-tax income per month, while a doctor earns two or three times as much as nursing care. After that, she resolutely took the German Abitur (equivalent to the Chinese college entrance examination) and entered the university medical school.
Many German parents also told reporters that when they were young, parents would let their children decide what to do in the future. Now, as parents, they are demanding that their children go to college. Most government ministers like Germany have PhDs. Many students also said that most of the current craftsmen occupations are mechanical occupations, while the most popular IT industry in society is less.
This also happens in Switzerland. Swiss SRF TV recently reported that Swiss universities in recent years continue to have a record-breaking number of new university students, such as the Swiss famous Swiss university Zurich Federal Institute of Technology, the total number of students exceeded 20,000 mark, and is still increasing, many universities have expanded their campuses.
According to the Swiss government's report, 40 per cent of the Swiss population currently holds a university diploma, and it is expected that by 2045 around 60 per cent of the total population will be held. But at the same time, there are fewer and fewer craftsmen in Switzerland. Thomas, who is currently studying at the University of Zurich, told reporters, "I was very eager to learn how to make watches, but in the end I chose to go to university and study information engineering. "Apprentices are now seen as 'low-end workers' in society, and going to university has become a must, you can master more new technologies, and you can also go abroad to exchange."
However, many companies do not see it that way. In a conversation with reporters, the heads of a number of German companies said that they were not short of university graduates, but apprentices. Some companies can't find suitable apprenticeship graduates and have to let college graduates replace them. According to a report released by the German Federal Labour Agency in October, nearly 5 million Employees in Germany had been "oversized" at the end of last year, working in jobs below their actual professional qualifications.
Britt, head of a watch company in Bern, Switzerland, told the Global Times that there are nearly 600 watch companies in Switzerland with more than 58,000 employees. But now there are fewer and fewer students willing to apprentice as watchmakers, and they have to choose from foreign students. Apprentices in handmade watchmaking are trained for 3 to 6 years to learn the techniques of filing, drilling, grinding, and cutting. "An apprentice earns more than CHF 4,000 (about 29,000 yuan) a month upon graduation, but a Swiss university diploma is generally more expensive." For decades, she said, young people pride themselves on "being a craftsman," but now there is no sense of identity.
"'Swiss Made' and 'Made in Germany' have no successors, and they cannot be simply analyzed as society's lack of attention to artisan education." Grard, an economist at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, told the Global Times that in the past, Switzerland and Germany's manufacturing industry was leading the world, mainly in mechanical manufacturing. Now that industry has entered the "4.0 era", it is more necessary to use future technologies such as networks and AI technologies, and vocational education must also adapt to needs.
Glald said that at present, apprenticeship education in Germany is undergoing reform, and craftsmen can obtain qualification certificates similar to "bachelor's degrees" in the future, and can enjoy the same status as university graduates in the company. In addition, the introduction of more IT technologies into the education of craftsmen can also stimulate the interest of young people.