In France, politicians will often tell you about the youth unemployment rate in Germany, there is even a sentence that sums it all up:
3 times less youth unemployment… 3 times more apprenticeship in Germany!
And that’s true !
— At home, almost 20% of people under 25 are looking for a job.
— In Germany, on the other hand: only 6% of young people do not have a job.
— Half of young Germans choose apprenticeships.
With our neighbour, it’s a royal road (all trades offer apprenticeship training)… whereas in France, for years, we have devalued this sector (6% of young French people are in apprenticeship, it may seem little but it is already much more than a few years ago).
Can France really do like Germany?
It might get stuck!
In Germany, up to 10 years old: all children go to the same school but then they are already asked to choose a direction:
— Either the gymnasium (equivalent to the French college-high school, they will pass the equivalent of the Abitur baccalaureate after 9 years.
— Either the realschule (equivalent to the technological high school, it will last 6 years).
— Either the hauptschule (like a techno high school too but which trains even more quickly for working life).
Children must make this choice at 10 or 11 years old.
And to put it simply, it is after their course that they will choose apprenticeship or university.
The Grandes Ecoles don’t exist in Germany… it’s totally French.
National education companies
The apprenticeship programs are chosen directly by the Ministry of the Economy… and the German employers according to the needs in the companies of the country.
In Germany, you will be told that this is why apprenticeship works so well: everyone wins (as companies train young people, they are sure to hire them afterwards, this is the typical German view) .
More than a difference in school systems, it is above all a huge cultural difference… perhaps even the biggest between our two countries.