Lexicon W - Z

All males 18 and older who are citizens of Germany are required to serve in the military. Anyone who does not serve for reasons of conscience must choose an alternative civilian form of service. Compulsory military service and alternative community service presently last for nine months. Why do we point this out? Because anyone currently taking vocational training cannot be required to interrupt this training to serve.

Your training contract is final – its contents describe the programme – but only for as long as you are a trainee. The German law on vocational training (another such law) happens to prohibit vocational training contracts that guarantee that you will be hired right after you finish your in-company training. Normally, an agreement is made during the last six months before finishing the vocational training describing how and if you can continue with the firm. There is no legal entitlement to such employment. But there is no need for concern. After all, we would be foolish to spend so much on training people who leave to join the competition. Seriously, the chances of being hired at REWE after your training at the company are very good.

You receive three certificates after passing the final examinations. First is the examination certificate from the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce containing the marks and points from the written, oral and practical parts of the final examinations. Next is a certificate from the company where you took your vocational training with an evaluation from the trainer. This lists everything you have learned, what company-wide courses you attended and how you worked and behaved at the company.

And then there is the finishing certificate from the vocational school showing all the marks of your final year at the school.

Apart from the final examinations, you also have to write the intermediate examination. The intermediate examinations help to determine how much you have already learned. These examinations are given above all for your own benefit. It is better to find out in the intermediate examinations that you need to try harder than to find this out in the final examinations, which are more important for your certification and thus for your future professional career. By the way, you will not be admitted to the final examination if you have not completed the intermediate examinations.