Germany Shuts Job Scheme For Unemployed Europeans Due To Over-Demand
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Germany, Europe’s top economy, on Monday announced that it could no longer accept applicants for its “Job Of My Life” programme – a scheme created last year giving vocational training to unemployed youth from the rest of the continent.
According to the German labour ministry, the programme was vastly oversubscribed by jobseekers, particularly from struggling Spain and Hungary, while Berlin has had to triple its budget for the scheme due to the overwhelming interest.
Germany, Europe’s top economy, on Monday announced that it could no longer accept applicants for its “Job Of My Life” programme – a scheme created last year giving vocational training to unemployed youth from the rest of the continent.
According to the German labour ministry, the programme was vastly oversubscribed by jobseekers, particularly from struggling Spain and Hungary, while Berlin has had to triple its budget for the scheme due to the overwhelming interest.
“Currently we cannot meet the demand”, told a labour ministry spokeswoman to reporters, as cited by AFP.
The “Job Of My Life” programme was initially targeted at 18 to 35 year olds from across Europe seeking to benefit from Germany’s “dual system” of vocational education and workplace training.
Besides on-the-job training and a guaranteed career after, trainees would also receive language courses, in order for them to successfully transit to living in Germany.
The scheme was promoted by Germany and Spain’s labour ministers last year as part of Europe-wide efforts to tackle youth unemployment. It was initially scheduled to run until 2016, with a budget of 140 million euros, but was subsequently extended to 2018, while the budget was increased to 400 million euros.
Nearly 9,000 young people from across the European Union expressed interest in taking part between January 2013 and the end of March 2014. Spain alone, with one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the region, accounted for nearly 5,600 requests.
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Wolfgang Gelhard, director of the Kolping training centre in Paderborn, in western Germany, said that many training institutes were still keen on taking on more workers.
“In some cases, there are companies that are interested in filling their apprenticeship places, but in others they can’t carry on without government support. It’s a situation of complete uncertainty,” he told the Financial Times.
According to AFP, the trainees tended to fill shortages in Germany’s own labour market, such as in fields like care for the elderly and gastronomy.
