EURES Romania helps young jobseekers find apprenticeships in Germany

In fact, according to Destatis, the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, the youth employment rate in Germany in 2016 (7.1%) was at its lowest level since the early 1990s.

The ‘MobiPro-EU – The Job of my Life’ programme was set up by the German government in 2013 to address this issue, by giving young people from other EU Member States with higher unemployment rates the opportunity to undertake vocational training in Germany.

In 2015, the County Employment Agency in Bacau, which is part of EURES Romania, began participating in the scheme after it was invited to collaborate by Germany’s International Placement Services (ZAV), who were responsible for recruiting trainees for the programme.

EURES Romania were asked to organise the selection of candidates aged 15–25 who would be interested in undertaking vocational training in Germany. They soon began preparations for an on-site recruitment event in Bacau, which took place in February 2015.

“We advertised in media, on national and local portals and also sent emails and messages on phones to all young people between the ages of 15 and 25 registered in our database, letting them know about this project,” recalls EURES Adviser Alina-Elena Ciorchelia.s

Alina-Elena and the Romanian National Employment Agency’s Manager Florina Andreea Avram took part in the event, along with two representatives from ZAV Rostock. 35 young people attended the event, with 24 finding placements in Germany as a result.

MobiPro-EU – The Job of my Life was based around Germany’s Duale Ausbildung system, a type of dual apprenticeship that combines on-the-job training with classroom-based learning.

According to Alina-Elena, this dual system has proven to be a successful way to integrate young Romanian people in the German labour market, as they gain not only qualifications and work experience, but also knowledge of the German language and other important life skills.

“In this way, young people are recruited by German companies at an early stage and they work and study at the same time (3-4 days in the company, 1-2 days in school), gaining also more self-confidence, new friends, learning to be independent and earning their own money, taking on the new responsibilities that living in a new environment creates,” explains Alina-Elena.

The project provided financial support to participants, both for initial language courses in Romania, and during their vocational training in Germany. It also covered travel expenses for interviews and offered support to help the participants get used to living and working in Germany.

EURES Romania’s participation in the MobiPro-EU – The Job of my Life programme was a great example of successful collaboration between a national EURES office and the government of another EU Member State.

It proved mutually beneficial to jobseekers in Romania who were willing to move abroad in their search for training opportunities, and employers in Germany who were looking to take on new apprentices to support their businesses.

‘MobiPro-EU – The Job of my Life’ was a pilot scheme of the German government which ran for four years, from 2013 to 2016. More information about the programme is available on the programme’s website.

Related links:

Destatis – Youth employment in Germany

MobiPro-EU – The Job of my Life

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