Support during vocational education and training in Germany

While most vocational education and training (VET) students learn their skills during an apprenticeship without additional support measures, some apprentices struggle to complete the training. Broadly speaking, students with immigrant parents are generally as content with their apprenticeships as students with native-born parents. They are more likely to participate in additional support measures, but are more likely to drop out of VET, and the apprenticeship contract cancellation rate is particularly high for students from the main asylum countries. For humanitarian migrants, a major issue is weak language skills, which makes it difficult to follow the theoretical curriculum in VET schools. This can indicate that many migrants need targeted support during their apprenticeship, which can increase the chances of completing the training and secure a stable connection to the labour market. This chapter discusses the challenges migrants might meet during their apprenticeship training.