The latest BIBB study shows that many companies are lowering their requirements for trainees in response to increasing recruitment problems – particularly with regard to school qualifications. As a result, more young people with only a basic school leaving certificate are being given the opportunity to take up an apprenticeship. At first glance, this development may appear to be a pragmatic and socially just response to the shortage of skilled workers. However, on closer inspection, it reveals a deeper risk to the future viability of the German economy and society.

For decades, the German dual training system has been a guarantee of economic stability and innovative strength. Its strength has always lay in combining practical training with high professional standards. If these standards are now gradually watered down without providing the necessary educational and structural support for a more heterogeneous group of trainees, there is a risk of a decline in quality with far-reaching consequences.

Training that merely fills gaps but does not build up robust skills does not produce skilled workers, but at best semi-skilled workers with no long-term prospects of staying in the job. This jeopardises not only the performance of companies, but also the foundations of German industry, whose competitiveness is largely based on well-trained personnel. If lowering barriers to entry is not accompanied by investment in training quality, this is not a gain in equal opportunities, but the beginning of structural decline.

What appears to be flexibility in the short term can lead to a decline in skill levels and thus in innovative strength in the medium term. Without high-quality training, there is no basis for technical excellence, digital transformation and sustainable development. Companies that lower their standards out of necessity ultimately risk their own future – and that of the entire economy.

At the same time, there is a risk of social disconnection: if training no longer functions as a means of social advancement but increasingly serves as a catch-all for those who have failed at school, it loses its integrative power. The consequences would be growing social tensions, declining motivation among young people and, ultimately, a loss of confidence in the system’s ability to deliver.

Planners, education policymakers and those responsible for training are therefore called upon not only to react pragmatically, but to act strategically. Targeted support programmes, a revaluation of apprenticeship occupations, stronger support for young people with lower levels of education – and clear guidelines for the quality of vocational training are needed. Otherwise, we run the risk of gradually undermining one of the world’s most recognised education systems.

The BIBB study is a warning signal: the future of the German economy does not depend solely on the number of training places filled, but on the skills that are taught there. A strong economy needs strong training. And that starts with quality, not compromises.