Government funds apprenticeship and Matura programme with 10 million euros

More than 6,000 apprentices were in training in Carinthia at the end of July, as the traditional start of the apprenticeship year brought renewed focus on the apprenticeship and Matura programme. The federal government plans to provide 10 million euros to make the combined training route more attractive, ORF reported.

At recycling company Lindner in Spittal an der Drau, 12 young people began a new phase of their lives on Tuesday. Two of them are taking the apprenticeship and Matura route.

Managing director Matthias Egarter said companies should not pressure young people to pursue the Matura. Lindner tries to respond individually and creatively to each apprentice, he said. Some employees who do not enjoy school instead complete a second apprenticeship alongside their first one in a dual apprenticeship.

Many apprentices in the passenger transport division of Austrian Federal Railways also choose not to add the Matura to their training. Apprentice coordinator Walter Jaeger said much of the training and a three-month period at vocational school take place in Vienna, meaning apprentices would miss too much during the Matura programme.

According to the Carinthian Economic Chamber, about 12 percent of apprentices in Carinthia choose the apprenticeship and Matura route. Benno Tosoni, head of the chamber’s apprenticeship department, said that was sufficient. The priority was to persuade enough young people to choose apprenticeships, he said.

Companies urgently need highly qualified workers because of demographic change, Tosoni said. The chamber also wants to encourage people who have already completed the Matura to take up apprenticeships with shortened training periods. Combining the Matura with practical professional training offers excellent career prospects, he said, adding that people working in manual trades would be harder to replace with artificial intelligence in the future.