Sir

The German labour market is in its deepest crisis of the post-war era. One of the severest shortcomings in Germany is a lack of willingness to take young people into apprenticeship. More than 200,000 such positions are likely to be needed each year. At the same time, the effectiveness of research activities inside and outside universities is lagging behind that of US and British institutions. The possible causes and potential remedies are widely discussed in the media. I should like to suggest a way in which the German science community might help to solve Germany's labour problem and at the same time increase its productivity.

Technical personnel in Anglo-Saxon countries usually have a university education, often a bachelor's degree. As a consequence, their education is up to date with the most modern technologies and knowledge. In Germany, by contrast, equivalent workers are educated either within companies that employ largely traditional methods or in schools whose curricula are years behind the state of the art. Young workers newly employed by research institutions and technology companies have therefore to be entirely retrained to be able to perform as desired. Because such retraining is usually unsystematic, the theoretical background of technical personnel in Germany is often insufficient to allow their creative participation in research.

Large research institutions, even those entirely financed through the government, only very rarely offer apprenticeships. Academics are extremely reluctant to educate technical personnel, considering such activity a burden. But the blame does not lie only with academics. Government and large research institutions do little to convince their employees of the need to educate young people or otherwise promote activities along these lines. For example, very few positions would have to be created in big institutes that coordinate teaching. Apprentices could rotate through different laboratories and acquire profound and versatile skills.

This would not only not be a burden, but within a few years would result in much better educated staff and, in consequence, higher research productivity. Thousands of positions could be created by this means, and each graduate would certainly be sufficiently qualified to compensate for the trouble caused to the scientists involved in training.