Mr. Metzger introduced me. I come from the German Institute for Vocational Education and Training. I've been there for three years now and I'm responsible for America, Africa, and India.
Today I'd like to give you a brief description of our dual system and say a few words about the institute. The dual training system in Germany, as Mr. Metzger said, comprises two parts to the training route. First of all, there's training offered in the company and we have vocational schools. As you can see on the slide, responsibility is shared by the federal government, which looks after the company component, and the vocational schools, which come under the länder, or provinces.
I will give you a little overview of this dual system. This system combines theory and a practicum. There are two places where the training is offered. As I said, this has been recognized worldwide and it has demonstrated its usefulness. This is a very good occupational training program. What's important to note is that this is a shared responsibility between the state and industry or the economy. There are 350 state-recognized training occupations. They're recognized in legislation. These two components play an important role in defining these trades.
More than 50% of the young people decide to begin training within this dual system and many companies are therefore prepared to provide training in their companies. They assume the cost of this training because they feel this is the best way to ensure that they have highly skilled workers who have been trained in the company, thereby reducing their staffing costs. Because this has an impact, it will in fact reduce recruiting costs.
The advantage for the young people, the apprentices, is that they are trained to meet market needs, and therefore, they have a better opportunity of finding jobs. They can also remain in the company where they trained. The advantage to the state is it costs the state less money. As a result of this participation with industry, the cost is borne by the economy, and we always have a good pool, an adequate pool, of skilled workers.
The main advantages of this dual system are that we train people based on industry needs and, as Mr. Metzger stated earlier, there is very little youth unemployment. I think it's standing at 8%. That's not very much compared to the rest of the EU.
This dual system wasn't set up just a few weeks ago; it goes right back to the Middle Ages.
Right now we're working with 35 different countries and we see there is a growing dual system now throughout the world.
The five keys to success are as follows:
The first is there is the cooperation between the government and industry, as I just described. The state and industry set the parameters for the occupational training, the funding, the implementation of a program, and the funding of that program.
The second point is learning on the job. Apprentices learn to work independently, and they acquire a variety of skills that are both practical and theoretical at the vocational school.
The third point is the acceptance of national standards. We have standards that are accepted nationally, and in the 16 länder, these standards are comparable. If you go to Westphalia you can learn a skill, and you can easily transfer that skill to Bavaria.
The fourth key to success is that we have qualified training staff within the companies. These people must be trained just as they are in the schools. That way we can provide ongoing consistent training throughout the program.
The fifth point pertains to research and career guidance. Our institute provides this. We do research so the system is always up to date, and we can tweak it to ensure our system meets the evolving needs of industry. We can always adapt our system to meet these needs.
I would like to talk about the training benefits from the perspective of the companies. In Germany, three-quarters of all companies do in fact offer apprenticeship spots. The reason they do this is this is the best way to ensure they have enough qualified staff on hand, and the people feel they are a part of the company, a company that provides training. The apprentices identify with the companies, but they also have a positive image of the company. The company has qualified staff, and this increases the value of the company.
I will give you an example. An apprentice earns a monthly salary of approximately $1,000 Canadian. Another important aspect is that every time I make this presentation before a foreign audience there is this realization that the funding for apprenticeships comes from the companies themselves. Seventy-five per cent of the funding comes from the national employment agency, the länder, the provinces.
On one final point, our institute came into being in 1970. We are the international centre for developing skills in the vocational field. Mr. Metzger has already said that we are active in the area of research and guidance, and now we have a law that governs the system. We're funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. We have 630 members on staff and 29 apprentices. On the last slide you can see a flow chart of our organization. We have 16 different sectors of work, and we have a central department.
If you have any questions whatsoever, I'd be prepared to answer them.
