Every trade Ausbildung follows Germany’s dual system: roughly 3-4 days a week working and earning inside a real company, and 1-2 days a week at a vocational school (Berufsschule) covering the theory. You are a paid employee from day one, not an unpaid trainee, and the law requires your salary to increase every year of the programme.

The legal minimum training allowance (Mindestausbildungsverguetung) for anyone starting an Ausbildung in 2026 is EUR724 gross per month in the first year, though every trade covered below pays meaningfully above that floor in practice, and pay varies by region — western states such as Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hessen, and larger companies, tend to sit at the higher end of each range.

Elektroniker training splits into specialisation paths, most commonly energy and building technology (residential and commercial electrical systems) or automation technology (industrial control systems). Germany’s ongoing renewable-energy buildout and building-electrification push mean demand for qualified electricians is currently outpacing supply in most regions.

Germany’s construction sector has flagged bricklaying as one of the trades hardest hit by the retirement of experienced workers without enough new entrants replacing them, which is directly reflected in how actively construction firms recruit international Azubis for this specific trade.

Electrical trades benefit from two structural tailwinds at once: Germany’s push toward renewable energy and building electrification, and an ageing existing workforce. Construction trades, bricklaying especially, face the same retirement-driven shortage without the same pipeline of new domestic apprentices, which is exactly why both trades post the highest post-qualification salary ceilings in this guide.

Trades with heavier client-facing or safety-critical communication, electrical work especially, tend to expect the higher end of that range (solid B1) before an employer will sign a contract, since misreading a wiring diagram or a safety instruction has real consequences. Workshop-based trades like car mechanics, where much of the daily work is hands-on and supervised closely in the early months, are sometimes more flexible about starting at a strong A2 with a clear commitment to continued language classes alongside the apprenticeship.

Regardless of the specific trade, Berufsschule instruction itself is conducted entirely in German, covering both trade theory and general subjects, so treating the language requirement as a box to check for the employer interview rather than a genuine, ongoing study commitment through the full 3-3.5 years is one of the more common reasons international Azubis struggle in the first year. Our German language exam preparation guide covers how to build and prove this level before you apply.

Anlagenmechaniker (heating, plumbing and air conditioning technicians) and Maler und Lackierer (painter and decorator) both post similar shortage-driven demand and comparable pay ranges to the trades above, generally EUR850-1,050 in the first training year rising to EUR1,000-1,300 by the final year, with post-qualification pay commonly in the EUR2,500-3,400 range. Both are worth researching alongside the four covered in detail here if your first-choice trade has limited seats in your target region.

Across almost every skilled trade in Germany right now, the practical bottleneck is not lack of open positions — it is the number of applicants with the German language level and paperwork ready to actually take them. That gap is exactly where a well-prepared international applicant has a genuine advantage over waiting for domestic supply to catch up.