The training contract: content, probation and registration with the chamber

A painting firm in Bielefeld takes on its first apprentice from 1 August. Both sides treat a handshake in May as the contract, no written record in text form is ever drawn up, and the Chamber of Crafts only hears about the young man when questions about the interim examination come up. The missing contract record can cost a fine of up to €2,000, the registration request that was never filed one of up to €1,000. A single afternoon at the desk would have prevented both.

A contract of its own kind, not just an employment contract

Anyone who takes a person on for vocational training is the trainer under the Vocational Training Act, the BBiG, and must conclude a training contract with that person. Section 10(1) BBiG says so. This contract is not an employment contract with a little learning added; it is a type of its own whose purpose is training, not primarily work.

Employment law still applies. Under subsection 2, the rules and principles governing employment contracts apply unless the nature and purpose of training or the BBiG itself point elsewhere. Where the Vocational Training Act sets its own rule, that rule prevails; otherwise the general rules described in the courses on employment contracts and on notice, leave and sickness apply.

Section 25 BBiG protects these special rules. Any agreement that departs from this part of the Act to the apprentice's disadvantage is void. The statutory minimum protection therefore cannot be negotiated away, not even with the express consent of the apprentice or the parents. Departures in the apprentice's favour, by contrast, remain possible at any time.

Two special features make access easier for family firms and specialists. Parents who train their own child may sign the contract with themselves as the child's legal representatives; the prohibition of self-dealing in section 181 of the Civil Code is expressly lifted for this. A daughter in her parents' business therefore needs no supplementary guardian to sign her training contract.

Several firms may also carry one apprenticeship together, provided responsibility for each stage and for the whole training period is settled. The Act calls this joint training. It helps the specialised small firm that cannot teach every part of the training regulations itself and lets a partner firm take over particular stages.

Who may hire and who may train

Section 28 BBiG separates two roles that often fall to one person in a small firm. Only someone who is personally suitable may hire apprentices. Only someone who is personally and professionally suitable may train them. A master hairdresser with her own salon usually meets both tests; the commercial founder of an online shop perhaps only the first.

Someone who is not professionally suitable, or does not train in person, may still hire. He must then appoint a personally and professionally suitable instructor who teaches the content at the training site directly, responsibly and to a substantial extent. An instructor who exists only on paper and hardly sets foot in the firm does not meet that requirement.

The Act also permits digital mobile training to an appropriate extent. The conditions are that information technology is used, that content and locations suit teaching at a distance, and that quality is equivalent. As the yardstick, the section names an instructor who can be reached during normal business hours and who checks the apprentice's learning progress.

Other staff may contribute under the instructor's responsibility, for example an experienced journeyman without an instructor qualification of his own. He must have the necessary occupational skills, knowledge and abilities and be personally suitable. Responsibility for the training does not move to him; it stays with the appointed instructor.

If the entitlement is missing, the contract still stands; section 10(4) BBiG expressly keeps it valid. Apprentices therefore do not lose their rights because the firm should not have been training. The consequences fall on the firm alone, since anyone who hires or trains in breach of section 28 commits an administrative offence under section 101.

Twelve items in text form, before the first day

Section 11 BBiG requires the trainer to record the essential content of the contract in text form, without undue delay after the contract is concluded and at the latest before training begins. The contract itself can therefore be made orally. The record is a separate duty that follows, and the firm cannot pass it on to the apprentice.

At least twelve items belong in it. The list is long, but each number answers a question nobody could answer reliably in a later dispute: who contracted with whom, for which occupation, where and for how long, for what pay, with how much leave and under which conditions notice may be given.

• name and address of both parties and, for minors, of the legal representatives as well
• type, subject-matter and time structure and aim of the training, above all the target occupation
• start and duration of the training
• training site and measures outside the training site
• length of the regular daily training time
• length of the probation period
• payment, amount and, where relevant, composition of the allowance
• pay for or compensation of overtime
• length of leave
• conditions under which notice may be given
• a general reference to applicable collective agreements and works or service agreements
• form of the training record book

The finished record goes to the apprentice and, for minors, to the legal representatives too, without undue delay. A firm working electronically must transmit it so that the recipients can save and print the document. A contract that is only displayed in a portal and can be neither downloaded nor printed does not satisfy this.

The firm must be able to prove receipt, and section 13 obliges the apprentice in turn to confirm it. The record and the proof of receipt must be kept for three years, counted from the end of the year in which the training relationship ends. If the contract is amended, the same procedure starts again for the amendment.

The period is longer than it sounds. If an apprenticeship ends in January 2029, the three years only start when 2029 runs out and they last until the end of 2032. A firm that files personnel records by year is best advised to sort training contracts by the year the training ends, not by the year of hiring.

What must not be agreed

Section 12 BBiG declares several clauses void that do sometimes appear in employment contracts. The first concerns the time after training: an agreement that restricts apprentices in their occupational activity once training has ended is invalid. A firm therefore cannot forbid its newly qualified specialist from starting work with a competitor.

One exception matters for succession planning. If apprentices undertake, within the last six months of their training, to enter into an employment relationship with the trainer afterwards, that commitment is valid. Writing the same tie into the contract at signing, by contrast, is void, because it was agreed outside that window.

Four further kinds of agreement are void: a payment the apprentice is to make for the training, contractual penalties, excluding or limiting claims for damages, and damages fixed as flat sums. There is therefore no training fee, and under section 14 the firm provides tools, materials and specialist literature free of charge in any case.

The popular repayment clause for dropouts fails twice over: as a payment for the training and often also as a contractual penalty. A firm that wants to protect its investment in an apprentice can do so only through good training and a timely offer of employment in the last six months, not through contract clauses.

Probation: at least one, at most four months

Under section 20 BBiG every training relationship must begin with a probation period. Unlike in employment, it is not an option the parties may take or leave but a statutory part of every apprenticeship. The contract only sets its length, and the written record must state that length under item 6.

The length has two fixed limits: at least one month and at most four months. The longer probation known from general employment law does not exist in a training contract. Copying five or six months from an employment contract template departs from the Act to the apprentice's disadvantage, and section 25 makes such a clause void.

Which length makes sense within that frame depends on how the first weeks unfold. If a company holiday or a long block of vocational school falls early, a single month shows the firm little of everyday work. Four months give both sides a chance to try out the switch between workplace and school as well.

What probation means in law only shows when notice is given. During probation either side may terminate at any time without notice; afterwards the firm can terminate only for cause. The third module covers these rules in detail. For now it is enough to know that probation is the only window for a separation without reasons.

Registration with the competent body

Under section 34 BBiG the competent body keeps a register of all training relationships in recognised occupations within its district, and every training contract is entered in it. In practice this is usually the Chamber of Industry and Commerce or the Chamber of Crafts. Registration is free of charge for the apprentice.

The trainer files the application, under section 36 without undue delay after the contract is concluded, in writing or electronically. A copy of the contract record and of the proof of receipt must be attached. The application may refer to an in-company training plan that the chamber already holds. The same applies to material changes to the contract.

Entry is made only when three conditions are met. The contract must comply with the Act and the training regulations, the personal and professional suitability and the suitability of the training site must be established, and for apprentices under 18 the doctor's certificate on the initial examination under the Youth Employment Protection Act must be shown.

If a condition is missing and the defect is not cured, the body refuses or deletes the entry. For minors it also deletes the entry if the certificate on the first follow-up examination is not shown by the day of registration for the interim examination or the first part of the final examination. The third module explains both examinations.

The register records, among other things, the agreed allowance for each training year, start and end, the probation period, any shortening and details of the instructors. The chamber therefore sees exactly the points where contracts most often go wrong. Registration thus also works as a preliminary check of the firm's own contract.

The length of the training is not set in stone. On a joint application of both sides, the competent body shortens it under section 8 BBiG if the aim can be expected to be reached in less time. In exceptional cases it extends it on the apprentice's application where that is needed; the firm is heard first.

What omissions cost

Section 101 BBiG backs the formal duties with fines graded by weight. Up to 2,000 euros may be imposed if the contract record is missing, incomplete or late, or if it is not handed over or not kept for three years. A firm that fails to apply for registration, applies incorrectly or applies late risks up to 1,000 euros.

The top band of 5,000 euros covers breaches that hit the training itself: tasks unrelated to training, failure to release the apprentice for school and examinations, a minimum allowance that is too low or late, and hiring or training without the required suitability. These duties are the subject of the second module.

The amounts are ceilings, not standard rates. For a small firm the heavier burden is often that a dispute over probation, pay or leave turns into a problem of proof when the record is incomplete. The twelve items are therefore in the firm's own interest, even if no authority ever asks about them.