UK should adopt Germany’s dual vocational training system to tackle youth unemployment
The UK government should adopt Germany’s dual vocational training system to tackle youth unemployment, say leading audit, tax and business advisory firm, Blick Rothenberg.
Nils Schmidt-Soltau, a partner at the firm, said: “Following Germany’s example could be key to resolving the UK’s growing youth unemployment crisis. Around 14.3% of young people in the UK aged 15 to 29 are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET), compared with 7.6% in Germany.”
He added: “A key structural difference between the countries is Germany’s “Duale Ausbildung” (dual vocational training system), which combines paid, company-based training with classroom learning and is taken up by around half of all school leavers. This model enables young people to enter vocational, and increasingly professional, roles much earlier, building practical experience, income and career progression from the outset.”
Nils said: “Crucially German employers play a far more active role in shaping training content, providing placements and absorbing trainees into the workforce. In effect, many German young people begin building a career while their UK peers are still in full-time education.”
He added: “In contrast to Germany, the UK has developed a heavy structural bias towards tertiary education. While university remains an important pathway, it has increasingly become the dominant route, resulting in large cohorts of graduates entering the labour market later and often without meaningful workplace experience.”
Nils said: “Degrees do not always provide directly transferable or occupationally specific skills, and delayed entry into employment can make the transition into paid work more difficult rather than easier. This underlines the importance of earlier, work-integrated pathways into employment — something the German model continues to deliver more consistently.”
He added: “The policy response should focus on rebuilding a more balanced transition into work. This means learning from Germany and embedding structured work experience earlier in education, expanding high-quality vocational and apprenticeship pathways that combine paid work with training, and aligning incentives across schools, colleges and employment services towards sustained employment outcomes.”
Nils said: “Earlier intervention for those at risk of disengagement will also be critical. The objective is not to reduce access to higher education, but to rebalance the system so that more young people move into meaningful employment sooner, strengthening both labour market participation and long-term economic growth.”