Why the training of young people is currently being ruined for us
The vocational training system in Germany has long been highly praised worldwide. It is based on the idea that trainees join a company after finishing school while also spending a certain amount of time in a vocational school. For decades, this system worked very well for us.
These days, however, we only take on trainees in absolute exceptional cases, because over the years the system has ceased to be a win-win situation for our company. In the past, trainees were essentially given a gateway into working life, but at the same time they were entrusted with real projects and responsibilities by the companies – just like regular employees. A trainee got things done!
For example, we generally took on 90 per cent of our trainees afterwards, which clearly was a win-win situation. We have always paid our trainees more than what the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), which oversees vocational training in Germany, stipulated. Trainees were genuinely available to the company quite often, and it used to be completely normal for a trainee to attend vocational school only in the morning and work in the company in the afternoon. Today that is unthinkable! Such a thing cannot possibly be expected of an 18-year-old! Practically torture!
And we were successful: for instance, one of our former trainees is now on our executive board, and several others earn six-figure salaries with ease – all of this largely without A-levels or a university degree.
Now everything is different: these days, trainees are to be treated like »royalty« within the company. And it is difficult to explain why a trainee has significantly more rights than an ordinary employee.
Today it feels as though a trainee spends the first six weeks at vocational school learning about their rights and what they absolutely must not do in the company, as well as everything the company is required to do for them. In the past, we were still able to adjust the number of hours in training contracts, and the IHK approved it. The same applied to certain holiday rules. None of this is possible anymore. Of course, under-18s need special protection – but at 18 one is fully legally competent and should be treated as such.
On average, our trainees now have more annual leave than other employees and significantly fewer working hours. On top of that, there are absurd framework training plans that nobody here truly understands. It makes no sense whatsoever that someone training to become a graphic designer must, according to the plan, spend four weeks in the warehouse and then perhaps another four weeks in accounting. Similarly, it is perfectly sufficient for a future salesperson to know what happens in the warehouse and how procedures work there. Naturally, they should take a look and help out briefly – but three days would be enough. And why should an accountant spend four weeks learning in the marketing department?
If you strictly follow this framework plan, a trainee is available to their actual department for maybe eleven to twelve months over the course of three years once holidays are deducted. This must be a joke!
On top of that, everyone complains that young people can no longer add up or write properly. Yet vocational schools include subjects such as PE and ethics, which in my view have absolutely no place there! And then there are school trips whose purpose we also fail to understand.
In the end, one thing is clear: if we are to train young people the way the IHK and the state envision it, then we really ought to send the government an invoice for it. And trainees must understand that training is not about games, fun, and sport, but preparation for working life!
That was 2025!
Of course, we don't yet have a fully audited set of figures, but we already have a good idea of how 2025 has turned out.
...Of course, we don't yet have a fully audited set of figures, but we already have a good idea of how 2025 has turned out.
Despite the challenging economic climate, we are pleased to announce that we have achieved single-digit sales growth. We are profitable, as we always have been, but our performance has been sluggish in 2025. We must be honest about that. This is not good enough for us. We can do better. We have realised that certain things only happened in our company because we were spoiled by high growth rates. These are probably no longer possible in the current economic climate. Therefore, we have had to restructure some areas of the company, but we now feel that we are in an excellent position for 2026.
In addition, we plan to invest a further seven-figure sum in 2026 to automate our processes, particularly our logistics operations. This will make them faster and more efficient.
When it comes to AI, I would say that we are already among the leaders in our industry, a status befitting a company that has been managing all business processes in its own cloud since 1995. This was at a time when most major providers did not even know what the cloud was. We have also always worked with a self-developed ERP system, which gives us strength, flexibility and, above all, speed. Speed is in our DNA, as is the fact that we are an IT company that also happens to do distribution.
In 2026, we will also be entering the security and building technology sector, initially with the manufacturer Ajax Security Systems. We have high hopes for this venture and are confident that our partners will benefit greatly from it, too. You will hear much more from us about this in the coming days.
Overall, there has been a lack of business momentum this year, for example in the form of large-scale projects – or the »budget burn spending« of many large customers at the end of the year. This is understandable in the current situation. However, our belief in growth remains firm, and we have set the course for the coming year with more ambition than ever before.
In 2026, you will see a whole host of new offerings, solutions, web services and other innovations from Jarltech. This will reinforce the fact that choosing Jarltech as your partner was — and continues to be – the right decision.
I am proud of my team, which achieved extraordinary things in 2025 and pulled together in every respect.
Let’s keep it going!
Why security is now coming into focus
Security is a megatrend that concerns us everywhere in Europe and across the world.
...Security is a megatrend that concerns us everywhere in Europe and across the world.
And that is exactly why, as of 1st of January, Jarltech is entering this business. Jarltech will become a distributor – initially for Germany, Austria and Switzerland – of Ajax Security Systems. Ajax is an outstanding company from Ukraine, with production facilities in Poland, Turkey and Vietnam.
I discovered Ajax because I have an extremely expensive hard-wired alarm system at home, which I then expanded with Ajax systems – such as a light curtain, specialised cameras, gas and water detectors, and all kinds of other components. And all of this at a much lower cost. The other equipment can basically be scrapped.
The products look as if they were designed by Apple and, in my opinion, are even easier to use. No cables, no power connections. And »Made in China« cameras are not exactly in vogue either and are being replaced in many premises.
This is the first time we have held product and sales training sessions after which almost our entire sales team immediately wanted to buy the devices for their own homes.
Our underlying idea is, of course, to link this with our existing customer base. If someone is already installing Wi-Fi in a logistics warehouse, they can just as easily mount a camera next to it or install a light curtain on the outside.
Take note: the profit margins for installers of such systems are extremely high and cannot be compared at all with what we are used to in the pure IT business.
As we always want to add value, we will be setting up a completely in-house security operations centre by 1st of February at the latest. This centre will, for example, be able to carry out and document virtual inspections, even for particularly sensitive sites.
The systems themselves are not especially expensive for end users. But if, in the end, half of the turnover remains as profit with our reseller, that is finally something truly spectacular.
Naturally, sales will run exclusively through our partners, who will need to be certified for this purpose. While anyone can purchase from us, the really attractive prices are only available after completing training.
More on this at the beginning of next year – please stay tuned! This is going to be something big.
We will also be developing combinations to monitor, for example, a checkout system or an entire retail store using these devices. On top of that, there will be highly intelligent building technology that is genuinely fun to use. Fire alarm systems, of course, included.
We are all delighted about this new partnership, are currently onboarding our new specialist department, and will then really take off with Ajax next year!
Why the training of young people is currently being ruined for us
The vocational training system in Germany has long been highly praised worldwide....
The vocational training system in Germany has long been highly praised worldwide. It is based on the idea that trainees join a company after finishing school while also spending a certain amount of time in a vocational school. For decades, this system worked very well for us.
These days, however, we only take on trainees in absolute exceptional cases, because over the years the system has ceased to be a win-win situation for our company. In the past, trainees were essentially given a gateway into working life, but at the same time they were entrusted with real projects and responsibilities by the companies – just like regular employees. A trainee got things done!
For example, we generally took on 90 per cent of our trainees afterwards, which clearly was a win-win situation. We have always paid our trainees more than what the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), which oversees vocational training in Germany, stipulated. Trainees were genuinely available to the company quite often, and it used to be completely normal for a trainee to attend vocational school only in the morning and work in the company in the afternoon. Today that is unthinkable! Such a thing cannot possibly be expected of an 18-year-old! Practically torture!
And we were successful: for instance, one of our former trainees is now on our executive board, and several others earn six-figure salaries with ease – all of this largely without A-levels or a university degree.
Now everything is different: these days, trainees are to be treated like »royalty« within the company. And it is difficult to explain why a trainee has significantly more rights than an ordinary employee.
Today it feels as though a trainee spends the first six weeks at vocational school learning about their rights and what they absolutely must not do in the company, as well as everything the company is required to do for them. In the past, we were still able to adjust the number of hours in training contracts, and the IHK approved it. The same applied to certain holiday rules. None of this is possible anymore. Of course, under-18s need special protection – but at 18 one is fully legally competent and should be treated as such.
On average, our trainees now have more annual leave than other employees and significantly fewer working hours. On top of that, there are absurd framework training plans that nobody here truly understands. It makes no sense whatsoever that someone training to become a graphic designer must, according to the plan, spend four weeks in the warehouse and then perhaps another four weeks in accounting. Similarly, it is perfectly sufficient for a future salesperson to know what happens in the warehouse and how procedures work there. Naturally, they should take a look and help out briefly – but three days would be enough. And why should an accountant spend four weeks learning in the marketing department?
If you strictly follow this framework plan, a trainee is available to their actual department for maybe eleven to twelve months over the course of three years once holidays are deducted. This must be a joke!
On top of that, everyone complains that young people can no longer add up or write properly. Yet vocational schools include subjects such as PE and ethics, which in my view have absolutely no place there! And then there are school trips whose purpose we also fail to understand.
In the end, one thing is clear: if we are to train young people the way the IHK and the state envision it, then we really ought to send the government an invoice for it. And trainees must understand that training is not about games, fun, and sport, but preparation for working life!
Dear doctors, what exactly is going on with sick notes these days?
The average number of sick days is rising… relentlessly....
The average number of sick days is rising… relentlessly. Soon the amount of sick leave taken by employees will even exceed the statutory minimum holiday entitlement. And yet it was assumed that, because of the extensive working-from-home rules, the number of sick days would actually go down on average. But they aren’t. This leads to an enormous economic burden. And do doctors share some of the responsibility?
First of all, if doctors are all so good, why are people ill so often? And secondly, shouldn’t we perhaps point out to the doctors – typically high earners – what their actual position in the economy is? Here’s the hard truth: doctors generally make no contribution whatsoever to net economic output. Doctors are paid by the collective of health-insurance contributors – a compulsory levy. Even the taxes doctors pay in abundance are, in the end, funded by the same insured community.
So why do doctors harm this very community so often? Because it costs them nothing? I’ve just looked at around 200 sick notes in my company. Why do they always run from Monday to Friday? Wouldn’t Monday to Thursday be enough sometimes? I’ve never seen that happen.
And what I also have never seen are »restricted« sick notes. A doctor can quite easily classify an employee with an injured foot as »unfit to drive«, which would allow the employer to have them work from home or pay for a taxi. Or a doctor could give a recommendation such as: »The employee is suffering from a contagious illness but can easily work five hours a day, should be allowed to sleep in, and must avoid contact with other people.« An employer is bound by such a note – and may or may not still be able to make use of the employee.
But as I said: I have never seen anything like that in 33 years as an employer. Frankly, it’s a scandal – and perhaps it’s time to consider whether employers might, one day, have a claim for damages based on such omissions. I’d be in favour of that!