Generation Praktikum / Generation Precarious – A Subjective Report
When I finished my last exams at school I originally did not want to decide what to do with the rest of my life immediately. Therefore, I decided to do some practical placements and to experience foreign countries. I thought it would be a great opportunity to gain impressions on a foreign culture and to improve my language skills. It is indeed. Nevertheless, to start a longer time (mostly one year) voluntary work abroad is a costly thing as the regional people or the responsible organisation can often not pay for this social work. This kind of practical experiences is obviously only possible for young people from more or less wealthy families who can afford a job that is unpaid and furthermore, spend a huge amount of money on living and especially traveling expenses. At the end I decided to choose a degree course that provides me an internship within my studies and gives me the opportunity to search for more purposeful practical experiences.
Later when I started to search for a place for my practical during my studies I realized that it can be more difficult and take more time than I had expected. To find a fitting place especially in the field of social sciences, where there is a strong competition for practical courses, is a challenge. First of all in Germany it is easier to deal with scientific topics because of the language but there are many (qualified) people searching for a practical. A foreign country in comparison provides a lot of experiences apart from the insight in workflow and activities in a company or organisation. The way of working might for example be different as various organisations will convey diverse impressions. An administrational institute, the parliament or representatives are mostly used to trainees and have a system how to deal with them. However, they do often not have many interesting projects for trainees. A little organisation (foundation or NGO) is maybe not so good prepared but you can get a whole bunch of impressions and you often can start an own project and take responsibility. A consultancy pays a lot of money but you also have to work as much as normal employees and in this case that is a lot.
In general one can say that you can learn within a practical placement what you do not learn in university. Aside from the practical experiences and the completely different daily routine you might think about what is important for you to reach in life. Do you want to start a career or are starting a family more important? Do you stress the money you earn or do you expect a satisfying job that you like? Are you willing to work hard and long or do you want to have a lot of free time and find it more important to create a diverse life apart from work?
For me it became clear that I want to do my professional practice abroad very soon. I wanted to find out how it would be to live in a foreign country. Can you cope with foreign people, an unknown language and a different way of life, I asked myself? I was very curious about another culture and if I was flexible enough to engage in a totally new situation. I finally decided to try my luck in Hungary and started to do my professional practice in Budapest.
So what are the advantages and disadvantages of a placement apart from the impressions of the workflow within a company? Nowadays practical experience is often a condition to get a job after your studies. Nevertheless, it is no guarantee for a good job. It is important to engage and it shows later employees your skills and interests. In addition, a practical placement can be used by companies to find and to prepare possible later staff members.
There are some conditions one can claim as essential for a successful professional practice. First of all there is the time limit of work experiences. To make it profitable one should at least stay six or eight weeks in a company as one normally says it needs about three or four weeks to get used to the workflow. Companies are mostly interested in trainees who are also able to work independently on their own projects and who do not need attention and care all the time. In spite of tasks and work fields for trainees are limited and because of that it makes little sense to stay longer than four or maybe six months. A further point is the expectations. On one hand one has to be open and engaged to learn new things. On the other hand too many expectations can hardly be fulfilled and lead to disappointment. Furthermore, one should not forget that it is a preparation period to get an insight into a company and no alternative to a “real” job. Therefore, a practical might indeed be a good intermediate solution to bridge the time gap between studies and job but it should not take more than a few months. In fact one has the skills and the academic education and should not (be forced to) work for less or no money. And money is last but not least one of the decisive factors of work. Whereas trainees earn for example quite good in the engineers’ field of activity they get hardly any money in the social sector.
In general companies admittedly rely on this cheap labour force to a rising extent and there are already business lines which depend on trainees and their motivated but cheap work. That is the reason why in some cases companies do even reduce jobs while they increase their number of trainees who then take over the incidental work. Additionally, there is a whole branch developing that deals with the placement and other services for trainees in the internet. Dozens of agencies, platforms and forums like www.praktikum.de or www.praktikanten.net and www.praktikum.info spread in the web. And apart from those there are also the services of the universities and those who provide special practical courses abroad (often including language courses and accommodation). Even the German Ministry for Employment has an own website to transmit information on the rights and the legal position of trainees.
In Germany a journalist of the well known newspaper the ZEIT came to the point: We are talking about a whole „Generation Practicum” – a generation of trainees in precarious positions now which also became known as “Génération Précaire” in France. Nevertheless, some working experiences are worthwhile as I found out for myself. It will probably help you to orientate, to learn about you own expectations and to find a fitting job. The only thing one has to stress is that while professional practice becomes more important (for job applications) one has also to strengthen the position of trainees for prohibiting an exploitation of their cheap labour force.
