German chemical apprenticeships hit lowest level since 2021

Frankfurt, Germany – The number of apprenticeships offered by Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industry fell 13% year-on-year in 2025 to 8,779 positions, data from trade union IGBCE and employers’ association BAVC shows.

The figure marks the lowest level since the peak of the Covid-19 crisis in 2021 and highlights what IGBCE described as a “drastic slump” in the training situation across the sector.

Companies were also more reluctant to retain trainees after completion of their programmes.

The take-up rate stood at 89% in 2025, the lowest since 2020, while only 58% of trainees were offered permanent positions – also the weakest figure since the pandemic.

“In the current situation of the industry, sheer fear obviously reigns in the management floors rather than sustainable personnel policy,” said Oliver Heinrich, a member of IGBCE’s collective bargaining board.

This, he said, is “exactly the wrong signal to the skilled workers of tomorrow.”

Heinrich added that the industry needed “courageous steps to secure the future” rather than short-term retrenchment.

Alexander Bercht, who oversees youth and training issues on the IGBCE board, said low retention rates risked damaging the sector’s long-term attractiveness.

Not offering highly educated people a long-term perspective is not only against companies’ own interests, but harms the reputation of the entire industry, Bercht added.