Bologna for trainees

The EU Erasmus+ programme is not only aimed at students or school pupils who want to gain experience abroad in Europe. Trainees are also supported.

André flew to Romania. The 21-year-old is training as a warehouse logistics specialist in Schneverdingen, Lower Saxony, and completed a two-week internship in the Romanian city of Galati in March of this year. ‘My internship company was Ginavidor, a haulage company,’ reports the young man. His tasks included order picking, putting goods together according to the customer’s wishes. He noticed ‘that the rules in the Romanian warehouse were less strict than in my German company,’ André explains. ‘Very few people wore work shoes.’ The trainee was also allowed to attend a city festival and spent ‘nice evenings’ with colleagues and the boss. He communicated in English. ‘To summarise, I can say that I was able to improve my professional and linguistic skills and get to know a new culture.’

André’s stay abroad was made possible by Erasmus+. In this project, the EU covers the costs of flights and accommodation, while the trainee’s salary continues during the internship. In 2023, the EU approved a total of 76.1 million euros for Erasmus+ projects in German vocational education and training.

The number of approved applications for trainees and vocational school students totalled 25,259 in the same year. 5,616 of these were in NRW, 5,227 in Bavaria, 704 in Saxony and 264 in Thuringia. These figures are published by the National Agency Education for Europe, which is based at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Bonn. The most frequent participants in 2019 – more recent figures are not available – were trainees from professions such as industrial clerk or wholesale and retail clerk.

Applications for an internship abroad are submitted by the company providing the training, the Chamber of Crafts, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce or an educational institution. In André’s case, it was the vocational schools (BBS) in Soltau, west of Lüneburg. This is where the 21-year-old is completing the theoretical part of his warehouse logistics apprenticeship. BBS Soltau has been committed to promoting the mobility of learners in the vocational training system for years. It also organises the internship and pays out the EU funding. In 2023, BBS Soltau organised internships abroad in Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, France, Austria and Estonia.

Apprentices in southern Saxony-Anhalt also use Erasmus+. ‘Destination countries are Spain and Greece,’ reports Anja Worm, press officer at the Halle (Saale) Chamber of Crafts. ‘There are two flows per year, with ten young people taking part in each,’ says Anja Worm. That’s a manageable number, considering the 2,963 trainees currently learning a skilled trade in the Halle Chamber district.

And what is the situation at BBS Soltau with its 1,900 students? ‘In 2023, we enabled 25 short-term mobilities,’ answers teacher Carsten Eckloff, project coordinator for Erasmus+ at BBS Soltau. Why not more? It often has to do with the previous education of the trainees. ‘Someone with a higher level of education is more likely to have the confidence to start an internship abroad,’ explains Eckloff. What’s more: ‘There are many hurdles, especially for trainees in smaller companies.’ The boss often argues that there is a shortage of labour anyway and that the trainee is indispensable. ‘A lot of persuasion is required,’ says Carsten Eckloff. ‘For trainees in large companies that have subsidiaries or partners abroad, it’s easier to get time off work for the internship.’

Eckloff is not prepared to accept this. He travelled to Brussels at the beginning of April this year to attend a meeting of the non-profit international organisation ‘Euro App Mobility’. Founded in 2020, the organisation aims to promote the mobility of trainees in Europe. According to Eckloff, one of the demands developed in Brussels is: ‘The creation of a European area for vocational training. Just as it was developed for universities with the Bologna Process.’ It is necessary to make it easier to recognise the training achievements made in other European countries. Companies should be relieved of the burden if they agree to an internship abroad. In Austria, for example, the public sector pays the trainee’s salary while they are learning abroad.

Erasmus+ also enables vocational training staff to gain experience abroad in a neighbouring European country. ‘Work shadowing in Poland? Job shadowing in Spain? Training in an Irish partner company?’ This is how the National Agency Education for Europe advertises this further training programme. Depending on the programme, the stay may last two days or a whole year. In 2023, Erasmus+ funding was approved for 7,752 teachers, trainers and careers advisors across Germany. BBS Soltau is also active here: in 2023, 17 teachers took advantage of the offer and travelled to other European countries.

Ralf Becker, responsible for vocational education at GEW, sees a need to catch up with Erasmus+ in the area of vocational education. ‘We need to expand information and counselling at vocational schools. To do this, we need a support structure from the ministries and appropriately qualified teachers who receive credit hours in return.’

Becker is calling on the federal and state governments to support small and medium-sized companies when they release their trainees for an internship abroad. Ralf Becker emphasises: ‘Looking beyond national borders, especially in vocational training, has never been as important as it is today.’