The apprenticeship situation in Germany seems to be pretty bad at the moment. Too many young people don’t have the chance to start an apprenticeship. And if they start one it is often not the apprenticeship they wanted to do. As student without a career and an advanced technical college entrance qualification and without an apprenticeship the future will probably be affected by unemployment and a life near the poverty level.

In the mid-nineties started something that has become a boom. The boom of private schools where students now can get the apprenticeship of their dreams. More and more students decide to pay for their apprenticeship and don’t attach importance to a in-firm training and to the attendance of a public training school respectively.

But what is so special about these private schools? And why choose students them for their apprenticeship and don’t even try a traditional one?

Payment

First of all the money plays an important role. Are you willing invest money in your apprenticeship? Or do you rather earn some money to be more independent? Lots of private schools are state-aided which is the reason why an apprenticeship costs only around 100 – 500 € per month. Compared to full private schools this is still affordable. The disadvantage is that you won’t earn any money and further more you might be dependent on other persons, e. g. your parents. If it is not possible to afford the money on that way you maybe also have to apply for individual state-aid and for a side job. At the other hand you can be sure that a private school tries as much as possible to satisfy you, e. g. the whole class doesn’t get on with a teacher.

Teaching method

Speaking about teachers there are also differences. Private Schools are more flexible in choice of teaching staff. They can not just employ traditional teachers but also professionals who teach part-time and can impart special knowledge. When it comes to language courses they also rather employ native speakers so that students not only learn to speak this language but also differences between accents, cultural aspects. In general teachers have the possibility to personalize their lessons according to the curricular or resume writting. If one of the students has problems with the learning matter there won’t appear any time pressure just because the teacher repeated a topic detailed. At a public training school teachers have to stick to their curricular. There is not much space for repeating stuff and special lessons. Also public schools can’t afford the money to employ free lancers with special knowledge.

Work experience

Another difference between private and public apprenticeships is the work experience. While doing an in-firm training you work more than you attend your training school. It is all about “learning-by-doing”. There is enough time to develop practical skills and make them perfect. After you finished your apprenticeship you will already have a work experience of 2 or 3 years. Attending a private school means the total opposite. After a 2-year-apprenticeship a lot of students don’t have more than 5 months of work experience in their job. The only possibility they have is to do an internship and there space of time is often given by school. And if you have bad luck you’re rather a char than a learning student in the company. Positive about the internships is that you will be able to get a taste of different fields of your job and then you can better choose where to work in you future.

Future

At the moment private schools gain more and more popularity among young people because of the low offer of in-firm apprenticeships in certain occupation groups. Besides that the public school’s public image got worse within the last years because of rising violence concentrated on classmates as well as on teacher. Entrepreneurs already trend to students from public schools because of their special background knowledge even if they have less work experience than students coming from an in-firm apprenticeship.

Altogether both possibilities have their advantages and disadvantages and say “this one is good, that one not” and you have to choose on your own which fits better to your personal skills. Take both options in consideration and then think about which one better helps you in reaching your goals.