The Company Training Plan
At the start of your apprenticeship, you should receive a training plan from your trainer. This plan specifies your work hours and areas of responsibility within the company. It also includes learning objectives and practical training stations:
The training plan should therefore include the following:
- What knowledge and skills will you learn?
- Over what period of time will you complete which learning modules?
- Who is the person in charge and the point of contact for each learning module?
- In which department will the learning module take place?
- What teaching and work materials will be used to convey the relevant knowledge?
Incidentally, the company training plan is based on the training regulations and the framework curriculum for your specific profession. These documents establish the nationwide standards for company-based training.
Tasks Not Related to Training
Of course, there may be times during your training when you have to perform tasks that aren’t listed in the training plan. However, constantly running errands, tidying up the warehouse, or even washing the boss’s car is not permitted. Trainers are not allowed to permanently assign trainees tasks that have nothing to do with their training or whose duration deviates significantly from the training plan.
Examples of tasks unrelated to the apprenticeship include:
- Covering for colleagues on vacation or sick leave
- Personal errands for the boss
- Regular cleaning of workshops and offices—unless it involves one’s own workstation or tools used on a regular basis
- Piecework and assembly-line work
To assess whether you’re being consistently assigned tasks unrelated to your training, take a look at your company’s training plan or the framework curriculum for your specific profession. This will help you determine what other—and potentially important—training content is being neglected simply because you’ve spent yet another day cleaning or running errands.
Overtime
In principle, apprentices are not required to work longer hours than agreed upon in the apprenticeship contract. This is because the time specified should be sufficient to learn a trade. Therefore, overtime for apprentices must be voluntary.
The following criteria are important:
- Overtime must serve the purpose of the training.
- Therefore, a training supervisor must be present at all times during your overtime.
- Overtime must be compensated or offset with time off.
What Else Makes for a Good Apprenticeship?
- Training on modern machines, computers, and tools
- The free provision of training materials for the workplace and vocational school
- Qualified and certified training staff with technical and pedagogical expertise
- Feedback and an evaluation meeting with your trainer before the end of the probationary period
- Training in small workgroups
- Assessments of overall training progress rather than performance evaluations of individual trainees
- Close collaboration between the vocational school and the training company
If many of the criteria for a good apprenticeship aren’t being met at your workplace, contact your youth and apprentice representatives, your works council, or your local IG Metall chapter. There, you’ll receive further advice and practical help.
