Frankfurt am Main – On Skilled Trades Day (September 21), the IG Metall union is calling for better training conditions in the sector. Against the backdrop of tens of thousands of apprenticeship positions that remain unfilled, Nadine Boguslawski, IG Metall’s Executive Board Member for Collective Bargaining and Skilled Trades, is urging companies to become more attractive to young talent by implementing more binding collective bargaining provisions: “With the mobility, energy, and heating transitions, the skilled trades are a crucial foundation for a better future. Even though the number of apprenticeships in climate-related professions—such as electrical engineers or plant mechanics specializing in plumbing, heating, and air conditioning—is rising slightly, the actual need for new talent is far from being met.”
When it comes to apprenticeship wages and the competition for tomorrow’s skilled workers, the skilled trades sector lags behind other industries. According to a recent survey by the Institute for Economic and Social Research at the Hans Böckler Foundation, even apprentices in the automotive trade, with wages of 979 euros in their first year of training, rank only in the middle of the pack among all apprenticeship wages.
According to IG Metall, training within the companies themselves must also improve. One in two apprentices across the entire skilled trades sector does not have a company-specific training plan, and one in five (19.4%) must perform tasks unrelated to their training. One-third of apprentices (35.6%) must regularly work overtime, averaging 4.1 hours per week. One in ten (11.6%) receives no compensation whatsoever—such as time off or money—for this work. These findings come from the 2023 Apprenticeship Report on skilled trades published by the German Trade Union Federation (DGB).
Boguslawski, IG Metall’s Executive Board Member for Collective Bargaining and Skilled Trades, stated: “The best way to promote skilled trades is by providing better training conditions for the skilled workers of tomorrow. Attractive collective bargaining agreements are the best seal of quality for companies.” According to IG Metall, only about 30 percent of workers in the skilled trades benefit from collective bargaining agreements, and about 60 percent of young skilled workers leave for other industries after completing their training. IG Metall is therefore advocating for better conditions in the skilled trades through initiatives such as the “Future Dialogue on the Skilled Trades” between unions, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH), and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs.
