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The listening exercises in Business Spotlight Übungsheft (p. 5) are based on the article “Where are Britain’s apprentices?” (Names & News, p. 8). Here, we provide you with the audio file and transcript.
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Where are Britain’s apprentices?
Germany, Austria and Switzerland have long traditions of industry apprenticeshipAusbildungapprenticeships. Britain’s politicians often point to these countries as examples to be followed. However, many British firms don’t seem very enthusiastic — on average, they spend only about half as much on training as companies in the EU.
The lack of apprenticeAuszubildende(r)apprentices is concerningbesorgniserregendconcerning. Nearly a third of 18-year-olds in the UK are not in formal education or occupational trainingBerufsbildungoccupational training, compared with 21 per cent in France and 19 per cent in Germany. Apprenticeships could help set those young drifterHerumtreiber(in), Bummler(in)drifters on to productive career paths. They can also provide opportunities for career changerQuereinsteiger(in), Berufsumsteiger(in)career changers — including university graduateAbsolvent(in)graduates who find that their degreehier: Abschlussdegrees don’t come with easily marketable skillsauf dem Arbeitsmarkt verwertbare Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeitenmarketable skills.
However, the number of apprenticeships available in Britain has been falling, and efforts to create more of them might have made things worse. Since 2017, companies with payrollGehaltsabrechnungpayrolls over £3 million have been required to spend a certain amount on apprenticeships, but many are be suspectedim Verdacht stehensuspected of spending this money on training for existing employees and not beginners. As the added bureaucracy[wg. Aussprache]bureaucracy of these rules may have been discouraging many small and medium-sized firms from offering apprenticeships, the government has recently taken steps to reduce it.