Challenges Faced by Future Butchers and Food Sales People in the Ortenau District
For the school year 2024/25, prospective butcher apprentices and aspiring food salespeople will have to travel longer distances for vocational school education. This change is due to the fact that the minimum number of 16 students has not been reached in the Ortenau district for the past three years. Consequently, future butchers and food salespeople will have to commute to Freiburg for their vocational schooling.
According to Martin Maier, the master craftsman of the Butcher Guild in Ortenau, this trend is a consequence of a decrease in the number of butcher shops in the region. Maier, who runs his fourth-generation butcher’s shop with his son, attributed this decline to a variety of reasons. One contributing factor is the increasing industrialization of the industry, as larger producers concentrate all stages of meat production. Additionally, the sector is also facing a shortage of skilled workforce, as even many supermarkets are limited to self-service counters due to a lack of personnel.
With the increasing industrial production of meat and sausage products, the diversity of taste is lost. A product produced in a large-scale operation tastes the same everywhere, regardless of whether you buy it in northern or southern Germany.
This development affects consumers directly. As the industry becomes more industrialized, the taste of meat and sausage products loses its variety. Furthermore, consumers can expect a significant reduction in the opening hours of butcher shops due to the shortage of personnel.
To tackle the shortage of skilled workforce, the industry is exploring new avenues. Maier mentioned a colleague from Lörrach who has hired Indian apprentices, suggesting that this could be an option for the Ortenau region as well. However, he emphasized the importance of ensuring that these foreign apprentices do not feel isolated and that they establish connections in the community so that they stay long-term. Apprehending the necessity to attract new talent, Maier stressed the significance of promoting vocational training in the schools and involving parents, highlighting the rewarding careers that can be pursued in the craft industry, even in the butcher trade.
“There are still opportunities for the development and continuation of businesses, but one must be a fighter,” said Maier, expressing his determined outlook despite the challenges and bureaucratic hurdles.
Impacts on Other Vocational Training Programs
It is not only future butchers and food salespeople who will face longer commutes for vocational school education in the 2024/25 school year. Florists and gardeners in the Ortenau district have also failed to reach the minimum requirement of 16 students in the past three years.
Florists will have to travel to Villingen for their vocational schooling, while the future location for the gardener’s training is yet to be determined, according to Heiko Faller, the social affairs officer of Ortenau district, which is responsible for vocational schools. Whether the affected teachers can stay will depend on their qualifications and the alternative subjects they can teach, and this decision lies with the state of Baden-Württemberg, their employer.
The transfer of these four vocational training programs was made on the condition that the Ortenau district receives training courses for housekeeping specialists from the entire Freiburg administrative district and media technologists from the city of Freiburg in return.
The discontinuation of these four programs may not be the end of it. The baking sector is also at risk due to low student numbers. Collaborating with the guild and willing companies, the aim is to counter this trend with targeted advertising and ensure the continuation of the baking training. Faller explained that the Ortenau district, together with participating educational authorities, is engaged in a process of regional school development to structure the educational landscape responsibly and future-oriented in the Freiburg administrative district.
“The allocation of inadequate training programs in regional school development processes always goes hand in hand with the concentration of other training programs at Ortenau schools and an increase in students from other districts. This optimizes resource utilization for school authorities and enhances the quality of education, benefiting young people and businesses. With its twelve vocational schools and more than 12,000 students, including around 6,900 apprentices, the Ortenau district remains the largest school authority among all districts in Baden-Württemberg,” stated Faller, emphasizing the commitment to maintaining the decentralized school system in the Ortenau district.
