WKÖ-Kühnel: Companies are hiring significantly more apprentices again

Shortage of apprentices worsens – increase in apprenticeship positions that cannot be filled at the end of the 1st quarter

Vienna (OTS) – “The labor shortage is also reflected in the current apprenticeship statistics. Austria’s companies are hiring significantly more apprentices, but many thousands of apprenticeship positions could not be filled by the end of the first quarter. That’s why we haven’t been talking about a gap in apprenticeships for a long time, we have a real shortage of apprentices,” stressed today, Monday, Mariana Kühnel, stv. Secretary General of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.

Specifically, as of the end of March 2023, there were exactly 31,356 apprentices in their first year of training in Austria’s training companies – this is an increase in new apprenticeship contracts of 5.7 percent compared to March 2022. The increase in apprenticeships extends across all 7 economic sectors. A total of 95,693 apprentices (across all years) are currently being trained in companies in Austria (+1.4 percent). And yet 14,060 apprenticeship positions cannot be filled at all mathematically at the moment (23,991 open positions reported to the AMS are currently only 9,931 apprenticeship seekers).

“The comparison of the data shows that the Austria-wide overhang of apprenticeships is increasing from year to year. In view of the forecast of up to 363,000 additional workers that will be needed on the domestic labor market by 2040, we must take action now. Because today’s apprentices are tomorrow’s specialists who will help to close this gap,” says Kühnel. It is all the more important from the point of view of the stv. WKÖ General Secretary to consider measures to increase the number of people for whom the apprenticeship is attractive and thus to increase the number of apprenticeship degrees.

A current WIFO study assumes a trend towards the AHS or BHS Matura at the expense of apprenticeship training. “The fact is that on average around 40 percent of all young people do an apprenticeship after compulsory school,” says Kühnel. “From the current point of view, a disproportionately large number of apprenticeship graduates will be sought in the coming years, keyword green jobs. It is therefore all the more important to dovetail career information better with the existing school system.” All in all, the willingness to undertake further training while working is becoming more and more important – both through universities and through vocational training.

In this context, Kühnel refers to the resolution on higher vocational training that is still outstanding in Austria: “It is the link between vocational training and further higher education. We need a timely decision because it ensures the dual system of vocational training up to tertiary level. Those who start as an apprentice today should be able to advance to managerial positions with the highest formal qualifications and degrees.”

The message can then be conveyed all the more clearly to young people that an apprenticeship opens up all development opportunities and career opportunities – documented with recognized degrees.

At the same time, additional initiatives are needed to better leverage existing potential. “We need better management of student flows. The talents and prospects of our young people are immensely valuable. For this reason, the school training offers must be geared to the future prospects of the graduates. We also need more low-threshold offers for career changers,” concludes Kühnel. (PWK095/US)