Jörg Dittrich, President of the Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH), has called for a comprehensive societal and political shift in how vocational training is evaluated. Speaking to the Funke Media Group’s newspapers, Dittrich argued that “prosperity cannot be achieved only through university degrees (Abitur and university studies), but also through vocational training”.
He stressed the urgent need for a clear political commitment to treating academic and vocational education as equally valuable. This parity, he insisted, must also be secured legally, which is why the trade sector continues to demand a Qualifications Framework Law. Alongside this legislative push, Dittrich emphasized the need for vastly increased investments in vocational educational facilities. The current renovation backlog for trade education centers is estimated at over four billion euros, and he argued that funding must be reliably increased as promised in the coalition agreement. He pointed out the technological disparity: “We are in competition with the high-tech auditoriums of universities; we cannot compete with a workshop that is equipped like it was in the 1970s”.
Despite ongoing demographic transformations, Dittrich maintains a positive assessment of the sector’s training prospects. Contrary to many other industries, the craft sector has recorded slightly rising numbers of new apprenticeship contracts for three years. He noted that roles related to social life and industrial transformation, particularly named electricians, roofers, chimney sweeps, and boiler/HVAC technicians, show positive medium-term development. He concluded that the overarching trend favors the trades, reiterating that those seeking stability and a sense of purpose should consider vocational paths.
However, the ZDH president also conceded that the training process must become more appealing. “Of course. I see this as an athletic endeavor” he said, acknowledging that both the roles and the expectations of young people are constantly changing. “We must constantly work to achieve the best results. It is a permanent competition”.
Dittrich strongly criticized new policies concerning training place fees, citing examples already implemented in Bremen and planned for Berlin, which require businesses to pay companies that do not offer apprenticeships. He stated that this situation raises his “blood pressure”. Furthermore, he argued that these measures unfairly burden companies that are genuinely willing to take on apprentices but struggle to find candidates. Counterbalancing this criticism, Dittrich highlighted the high overall performance of the sector, noting that roughly one in three vocational qualifications nationwide-just under 30 percent-are completed in the trades. He added that the crafts sector accounts for more than 12 percent of all national employees. He deemed this performance a “great disproportionate achievement” for the sector, making it ununderstandable, in his view, why the crafts should absorb additional financial burdens. He stated that current proposals are “completely wrong and frankly outrageous”.
