Gone are the days when young people continued their father's or perhaps mother's job without much say and went on to the relevant training program straight after completing their school career. Today, many parents and prospective trainees are happy if they even know about the careers they can learn. The various training occupations recognized by the Federal Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) are far from just those that everyone can classify directly.
For example, while many people still have an idea of the activities of a butcher or an industrial clerk, job profiles such as figurine ceramic molder or technical clothing designer are much more abstract for most people.
Given the wide variety of training occupations from industry and crafts, the public service, home economics, agriculture, shipping and the “freelance professions”, it should hardly be surprising that the decision for a job – which will subsequently be carried out for decades – is difficult for many students.
So if you don't have a specific dream job in mind towards the end of school, you may try to use tests to determine your personal skills and interests. There are enough offers for this; starting with low-threshold online tests on trainee websites, through the offers from the Federal Employment Agency, where after the test there is a consultation with a consultant, right up to personal job coaches.
About questions about the goal
Not all of these methods are likely to produce equally meaningful results; But they probably all provide food for thought when, for example, people ask about preferred future scenarios: Would you prefer a job with a lot of contact with other people or with a lot of time alone? Would you rather be in the fresh air or in an office or laboratory? Would you rather manage or tackle things?
At best, the careers suggested based on the answers are definitely worth considering. Otherwise, there may at least be some clues as to what doesn't fit from the test person's point of view and why. This can also ultimately result in a clearer picture of your own wishes and ideas.
Career advisors are becoming increasingly important
If such a test reflection also takes place together with a training expert, it is of course advantageous in several respects, because in case of doubt, this opportunity can be used to clarify what a figurine ceramist or a technical fabricator actually does.
Once you have finally decided on a specific career you want, the next step is to find a suitable training company. The high dropout rates in recent years show that not every training company meets the expectations of its trainees. Particularly in the trades, the liberal professions and the domestic professions, many training contracts were ended prematurely last year, at over 30 percent each – a counter example with a significantly lower termination rate is the public service.
High dropout rate on the training market
The BIBB sees one of the possible reasons for this in the positive situation on the training market for trainees, because in purely mathematical terms there have always been more training places than applicants in recent years. According to the BIBB, this advantage enables trainees to relatively easily find a training position in another company and move there if they are dissatisfied with their employer. It is all the more important for training companies not only to raise realistic expectations among their trainees in advance, but also to fulfill their own side of the contract in an exemplary manner during everyday training and thus earn a positive image as a training company.
In the fourth year, the business psychology rating and ranking agency ServiceValue has surveyed more than 3,900 companies that provide training for companies that are currently considered particularly attractive by the public for current and future trainees.
In the “Attractive Training Companies 2024” study, these companies are listed and ranked in a cross-industry ranking according to their respective approval ratings. Students who would like to apply for the 2025 training year in the near future can take a look around and find out which training companies in the service, trade and industrial sectors have a particularly good reputation and could therefore be interesting for them. You can find the ranking with all recommended training companies here.
