Chef training is not without its problems in Germany either

41% of chef students terminate their contracts before the end of their studies

Most of the time, participants in chef training are forced to work overtime, which is not compensated with either free time or salary. They consider the quality of the training to be worse than that of students in other sectors, especially in terms of working time and workload, they assess their situation as dramatic. While only 10% of all training participants mentioned overtime, this rate was 47.4% for those trained in hotels and restaurants. 16.8% of the students here complained that they always or often have to do extracurricular activities. Thanks to the evaluation, 41% of chef students terminate their contracts before the end of their studies, while 37% of hotel professional training participants do.
According to the head of the relevant trade union, Claudia Tiedge, the industry sought the much-complained shortage of professionals for itself. Our partner association, DEHOGA, rejected the trade union’s criticism, and believes that instead of denigrating the sector, we should jointly strengthen ourselves for the sake of quality training. Most plants are aware of the importance of good training in securing professionals. They continue to make huge efforts and invest in this area. The research cited by the trade union refers to the period affected by the pandemic, when there were no training opportunities for 4 months and many restrictions influenced the training process even after that, which explains the many contract terminations. Instead of such summary judgments, a constructive social partnership could help to avoid kicking companies and their managers who are doing excellent training work with such comments.