Further education stagnates: Why Germany is falling behind in learning

Germany is in the midst of a training crisis.

At least, that is what a new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation suggests, showing that only 50.7% of employees between the ages of 25 and 64 plan to undertake further training in the coming twelve months – even though AI and demographic change in particular are already noticeably changing job requirements. This means that Germany is falling well short of the EU target of around 65% of employees undergoing further training each year. Existing skills and competence gaps are thus likely to widen rather than close.

Particularly problematic is the fact that those who are already well educated are more likely than average to pursue further training, while low-skilled employees are less likely to have further training plans and often see little incentive to do so. At the same time, costs, lack of time and a confusing information situation are holding back those who would actually be willing to learn – a risk for a labour market that is in the midst of transformation.

We were also interested in the following topics:

• Fit for AI: While AI skills are being preached everywhere in professional life, only 8% of German companies offer corresponding training for their employees. A three-part series in the FAZ explains how to become proficient in AI nonetheless.

• Officialese: German – officialese; officialese – German. Gen Z official Luisa Welink has created a small lexicon to help people better understand typical terms used in everyday administrative life.

• Career choice: Normally, jobs are filled based on qualifications. But then there are cases where the name apparently predicts the career, as this post shows. The phenomenon is called nominative determinism and describes the idea that people unconsciously choose professions that match their names.

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