Shortage of skilled workers. America celebrates “German Education”.

{Translated}

Sometimes, when the alarm clock rang at a quarter past five in the morning, Stephanie Walters already had this thought in her head:  Does it really have to be like this? Wouldn’t it be better to go home right after school and talk to your friends about boys and music? Instead, the talkative South Carolina teenager knew that the day would start all over again with the last high school bell: Drive to Trident College or the Bosch factory north of Charleston, study math, draw construction plans, disassemble brake systems – and file,file, file. It was often nine or ten in the evening when Walters came home completely exhausted. Today, after two years, the 18-year-old says:  “It was great.”

Walters not only finished school this summer with flying colors, but also completed her apprenticeship at Bosch. This makes the young mechanic truly exotic. It is unusual that she completed High school and job training – especially in a typical male profession – simultaneously. Above all, however, it is still the exception in the USA that someone completes an apprenticeship according to the German model – with training in the company, attendance of vocational school and salary. Teenagers usually go to High school until they are 18 and then to College.  If you can’t, you can train somewhere for a few months and then start working: as a saleswoman or hairdresser, as a fry cook or construction worker.

But just how little the traditional US training system suits an increasingly demanding job market is becoming more and more evident every month. The unemployment rate is now barely four percent, and the shortage of skilled workers is virtually palpable throughout the country.  In Iowa, for example, entrepreneurs are queuing up at the universities of applied sciences to pick up the best young students. The railway companies BNSF Railway and Union Pacific pay bonuses of up to $25,000 – just to get people started with them.  And companies often no longer ask for local tax rates when choosing new production sites, but first and foremost for qualified workers.

But bonuses alone will not be enough to fill the jobs of the future – politicians, companies and parents alike are swaying. Companies from Germany play an important role in the rethinking process. When their US subsidiaries were founded, they not only brought German engineering skills, thoroughness and traditions – such as miserable filing – but also the dual training system. The idea is so captivating even for Americans that two such fundamentally different people like Barack Obama and Donald Trump were able to get enthusiastic about it. But because change is slow to take off, it is no coincidence that the US Department of Labor has now named Walter’s home town Charleston – which is also the US base for companies such as Bosch, Daimler, BMW, IFA and Evonik – a “national model region for the further development of apprenticeships”.

When Bosch came to South Carolina 50 years ago, the German style of promoting young talent was initially unthinkable. Even the idea of paid company training seemed absurd to US companies, because for some managers, making new workers fit for the job was and still is not the job of the company, but of schools and the individual.  This had gone well for a long time: The managers were recruited at the universities, the simple jobs were done by semi-skilled workers. It was only when simple jobs increasingly moved abroad and the remaining positions became more and more demanding that it became apparent that the entire middle management was missing. Today, one in two US companies considers the shortage of skilled workers to be more problematic than bureaucracy or inadequate infrastructure.

In 1976, Bosch began training on its own initiative along the lines of the Stuttgart parent company.  The nearby Trident College, which soon offered the first courses specially tailored for Bosch apprentices, was acquired as a “vocational school. Today, a good 40 years later, all 16 technical universities in the state are participating in the “Apprenticeship Carolina” program. More than 28,000 employees have completed an apprenticeship, with most of the approximately 1,000 companies involved not distinguishing between training and further education. The majority of the “Apprentices” are employees who have been working in the company for some time. Offers for teenagers who, like Walters, start training during or immediately after high school currently account for only about one-fifth of all offers.

Above all the parents of the young people must be convinced.

Bryan Derreberry, President of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, is one of the most eager supporters of the training offensive. “Giftedness is the oil of the 21st Century”, he says. “We must promote it!” But it is not only the companies that want to be convinced, it is also the young people themselves – and above all their parents. Many mothers and fathers are still doing everything they can, to get their children into a good College. Factories, on the other hand, are considered dirty and a place of work for the poor and failed. The idea that modern production facilities today look more like clinically clean operating theaters is often just as alien to parents as the idea that an apprenticeship may offer some teenagers better opportunities for social advancement than a visit to a financially weak state College. “When I told my mother that I didn’t enjoy my studies and that I wanted to start an apprenticeship, she was strictly opposed at first,” says Thomas Holder, who learned about a vacancy at Bosch via Facebook. “She’s thrilled today.”

Young adults are often convinced by the prospect of immediate permanent employment and a monthly salary of up to $800. “Earn while you learn” is the catchy slogan, which companies that are willing to train have devised for it. It’s a bold prospect because, for Americans, education almost always means: Student loans in the five or even six-figure range – and pray that you find a job that makes repayment possible. The best apprentices, however, says Marc Fetten, head of the Charleston International Manufacturing Center, earn even higher salaries than many students with appropriate further training and some professional experience. “They earn six figures and keep their own house in order”, says Fetten. “A lot of college graduates can’t keep up.”

Meanwhile, Melissa Stowasser, head of the high school trainee program at Trident College, is already calling the parents of twelve and thirteen-year-olds to find out about dual training opportunities. In contrast to a few years ago, the University not only offers courses in mechanics, mechanical engineering and other industrial activities, but also for budding chefs, hotel clerks, midwives, refrigeration technicians and accountants. Meanwhile, even top managers in the country such as JP-Morgan boss Jamie Dimon are committed to company training and to standardizing the countless regional programs.

Stephanie Walters, the young Bosch employee, is sure that she is on the right track. After completing her youth training, she will now begin a two-year apprenticeship as an adult, which will open up further career opportunities for her.  This will be followed by another two years of engineering studies, for which Bosch will pay all fees. She will continue to work in the company for the entire four years and will receive a salary.  “I’ll be done by age 22 and have all the options,” says Walters, who’s just rattling off the words coming out of her mouth. “My friends who are going to College now will be standing there with a sack full of debt.”