Germany: study reveals cost-effectiveness of apprenticeships through comparison with cost of a conventional hire

On 9 June, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) published its third study since 2007. It is based on more than 4,000 interviews and details the average cost of dual training by region, size and business sector. In addition to a comparison between the periods 2007, 2012/13 and 2017/18, the study offers a fairly high degree of accuracy on the type of costs incurred by an apprenticeship, as well as on the average gain generated by apprentices depending on the number of years of training. In a final section, an overview of the average cost of an external hiring process, including the cost of the initial integration of new employees into the company, allows for a better comparison between the two recruitment approaches.