Comparison and Challenges of UK and German Skill Formation Systems - Essay Example

The dual apprenticeship system of Germany and its institutional underpinnings have resulted in a reputation for better quality training. It is known as the dual system since the training occurs both in public training schools and in firms. Taking advantage of this system, the German firms transform the apprentices into specialized employees at lower costs by providing them in house training. The major cause of the success of this can be attributed to the fact that there is a close association in between all the social partners. The system provides three hundred and thirty four trained occupations that are certified and are designed carefully by the industry and the government. The German dual apprenticeship system is revised constantly and changes are made in order to make the system better in various other ways. The system of dual apprenticeship is deeply inculcated in the German society and economy (Market Intelligence Germany, 2014).

The German dual apprenticeship system has been proven to be successful in many ways. In the higher education sector, the programs of dual study are rising. It also enjoys a higher reputation mostly from the employer’s end as all the apprentices are closely associated in most of the day-to-day processes. There are certain theories like ‘varieties of capitalism’ and ‘high skills equilibrium’ that can be used to explain why and how the German dual apprenticeship system has been successful in the long run. ‘Varieties of Capitalism’ is an explanation that is politico-economic in nature that uses the political, social, economic scientists for analyzing the distinctions between different varieties of the economic systems that are capitalist in nature (Hobson, 2005). The German dual apprenticeship model comprises of a number of solutions for meeting the economic and the societal needs that has gain immense popularity over a period of time. It is effective due to the fact that it inculcates both higher education and vocational training that is apprenticeship based. The apprenticeship training program seems to be a very useful and an effective alternative since the sponsors of the registered apprenticeship programs express a great deal of satisfaction with the programs. This process helps the sponsors in meeting the demands for the skilled workers, raising the productivity and in bolstering the pride and the morale of the worker. The reliable, explicit and consistent dovetailing of practical training and academic education is represented approximately by around 375000 apprentices in around 19000 programmes related to apprenticeship in the year 2013 (American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 2014). The apprentices are presently earning as they are attaining the requisite skills that are required to be successful. According to the Department of Labour, the number of apprentices is less not only if the German numbers are compared to it but even if they are compared to the past US figures. This indicates that the German dual apprenticeship model has a strong potential in the US environment. (American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 2014) In classic liberal market economies which lack the institutional base that coordinates the market economies, the apprenticeship programs are very effective. The actors require changing some of the institutional foundations for accommodating the apprenticeship programs. The federal government plays a crucial role in this aspect but the local agencies and the employers play an equally important role since they help in the coordination of the activities that are required to implement the apprenticeship programs. The programs of apprenticeship may be constructed and supported by taking into consideration one company at a time. This approach by the community, local and technical colleges, firms and the employee development boards provide various opportunities of practical training to the apprentices. German organizations such as Volkswagen, BMW, etc have been quite successful and vocal regarding their initiatives of implementing the apprenticeship programs in their subsidiaries (Apprenticeship Carolina, 2012). Their success depends on the adequate resources (finance) for creating those programs. It is often done by collaborating with the community colleges and the marketing activities for attracting the apprentices and the qualified students. The small or the medium-sized organizations can also follow this. The firms are willing to offer vocational education that is more accepted practice oriented since this enhances their efficiency and productivity and also helps in building trust with the organization.

The German dual apprenticeship model and the theory of high skills equilibrium are closely related. The main motives of the employers were to invest considerable amount of money and resources towards the improvement of the skills of the employees so that their efficiency level and productivity improves. The companies had provided the employees money so that they are able to acquire certified skills that would help them to enhance their wages and productivity. The productivity of the firms would be increased in the process. The close link which was created by the apprenticeship in between work and training had resulted in a low unemployment rate of the youth by the international standards. The main aim of the process is to produce employees the majority of which is comprised of having intermediate level skills that are certified. Thus, the German dual apprenticeship system is quite useful in this context and the firms can apply it for increasing their productivity by making proper investments and resources on the workforce.

• Comparison between Germany and UK

The participation in higher education of UK is on the rise in comparison to Germany; whereas, the quality of training is weak. In the UK, the institutional features the involvement of training that do not meet the basic quality and standards and greater volumes of on-the-job training. On the other hand, in Germany, the post-compulsory training program has been predominantly conducted within the framework of the dual system of apprenticeship training. It underlines the specificity of vocational training of a greater portion of the labour-market.

There are certain problems that are faced by the UK apprenticeship system (Zhao and Rauner, 2014). The number of apprenticeships is not sufficient and it is decreasing widely. There is also lesser number of young people beginning an apprenticeship in comparison to the past. The on the job training has been mistaken as apprenticeships and there has been an increase in the apprenticeships numbers having bad quality aspects. The employers, especially those of the small businesses are of the idea that the system of apprenticeships is very complicated. Most of the employers wish to get themselves involved in the process only if the qualifications are relevant to the business needs. The major area of concern is that the enterprises of small and medium size create jobs at a faster rate in comparison to the big businesses, but most of them do not offer apprenticeships.

In Germany, the companies do not view this system for the students who are struggling or for the youth who are at a risk. As per their observation, this kind of activity cannot be classified as Corporate Social Responsibility. It is rather used for enhancing the talent of the employees thereby increasing the productivity of the companies. They do not find the process to be difficult at all. They need to hire people who are talented and can lend to the success of the organization and for that, apprenticeship programs are crucial to them. In Germany, the system is seen as a learning process rather than hasty in-work training where the only focus is to complete the course in a very short span of time. The focus is to create thoughtful, skilled and self-reliant employees who are able to understand the methods and the goals of the organization and can make improvisations in times of need. For this reason, the program is of a long duration and standards so that the requirements are complied with (The Atlantic, 2016).

The apprenticeship schemes and training of UK plays a relatively small role in the workers’ education (Ballantine and Spade, 2008). Instead of that, a compilation of public and formal education is available that mostly focuses on the knowledge and skills that are relevant to various occupations and are also applicable to different industries. The employees are given in-house training by the individual companies. There are times when the economy might get trapped into a system of low skills, low value-added and also of low wages. The situation might resemble that of low skill equilibrium. It has been widely seen in the UK that though the unemployment rate is low, but most of the jobs are of low wages (Gautie and Schmitt, 2010). The focus is on kind of jobs which are less paid and require low level of skill sets.

• Challenges faced by the LMEs and CMEs

There are different challenges that are faced by both LMEs and CMEs. In Germany, there is a drift from academic education to vocational apprenticeship. Due to this, the formal academic education of the students is not completed and there are many theoretical aspects which remain unknown to them in the long run. The collective bargaining declines to a great deal and the unions are weakened. There is a considerable amount of increase in expenditures of the firms due to the incorporation of the German dual apprenticeship system. Also, there are some employers who tactfully use this system for making the employees work at lower wages while getting the best out of them by providing them with training. Due to this, a new type of labour market formation has taken place which is named as the low wage labour market. There are certain firms that exit from the employer organizations since they feel that the system is quite complex to be implemented. The skills that the employees are trained for usually aimed at increasing the productivity of the employees and in most of the cases are not related to the job or the firm specifically. Thus, the firms feel that this model is not helpful for them and on top of that, it also involves huge amounts of investments and they exit from their employer organizations. Weakening of the employee unions also occur since the employees get trained in different skills according to their capabilities and hence, their unity is disrupted. There are other threats to the high skills equilibrium too, since the employees while on their training period is made to work at relatively low wages and problems might occur due to that too.

In UK, the challenges that the system faces are many. Labor market polarization takes place due to the reason that the employees are provided in-house training that is characterized by a short time span and to be of lower standards. The demands of the employers are weak since they only focus on providing training to the employees that are related or are specific to the firm or the industry. The process is very hasty and it is done in a short time of span where the focus is more on completion of the process rather than on learning. The skills and the talents of the employees are not utilized in the process. There are increasing number of over qualified employees due to these training sessions and time and money is wasted that could have been utilized in boosting the overall productivity. The in-house training is often mistaken to be apprenticeship training and hence, the whole idea is very misleading. There are many on-going issues and problems with the reforms to apprenticeships and vocational education. Due to the system of training which is not detailed and comprehensive, there are many ongoing problems with the employer demand for skills in spite of increasing the supply of the skills. The expectations of the employers are generally not met since the training is not provided in a detailed and skilled manner.

• Conclusion

The German dual apprenticeship system is a detailed approach towards providing proper training. Over the years, it has been quite successful in imparting training and in improving the productivity and efficiency of those who have undertaken the training. This is due to the fact that the main motive of providing the training is to impart a comprehensive education that would be helpful to the workers in their work rather than just providing training that is related to the improvement of certain specific skills. The German dual apprenticeship training has been very successful in the US markets due to the nature of the markets in that country. That said, the skills system of UK is separate from the dual apprenticeship system of Germany. This system involves providing training as per the requirements of the company and nothing in general and is focused on achieving the results in a very short span of time. On comparing both the systems, it can be concluded that the German dual apprenticeship system is better than the UK skills system. In order to compete with the German’s, the UK system should consider developing training programmes that will improve the overall knowledge level of the employees rather than focussing only on any particular job aspects.

• Reference List

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