Starting in 2028, Berlin startups will have to hire – or pay – trainees. Founders of Holy, LAP Coffee, Urban Sports Club, mika and Peec AI sharply criticize the decision.
Berlin is getting serious – and startups are anything but enthusiastic: The so-called training place levy was passed by the Berlin House of Representatives last week. Specifically, it means: Anyone who doesn’t train has to pay. Gründerszene had already reported on this.
From 2028, companies with at least ten employees will be asked to pay if their training rate is below the current national average of 4.6 percent. And: It is no longer enough to simply advertise positions – they also have to be filled.
Companies that train too little or not at all should then pay into a fund that is expected to bring in around 75 million euros annually.
What do Berlin founders who are directly affected by this say about this? We asked her.
Good idea, but unrealistic
Mathias Horsch, founder of the soft drink startup Holyis divided opinion. In principle, he welcomes the idea of the levy. “Conceptually, I think the idea is good – I trained as a banker myself after graduating from high school and I know the value,” he says.
But: “In reality, the law sounds like even more requirements and regulations, and that’s a real downer for us founders.” According to Horsch, Holy is primarily lacking certified trainers in order to meet its own high standards, he says. His company has grown from zero to 160 employees in five years – that makes it difficult to train young people in the traditional way.
Wrong signal to innovative companies
And the coffee startup Lap Coffee is also viewed critically. founder Ralph Hage sees the levy as “another wrong signal from Berlin to everyone who is building businesses here”. His business model does not fit with “outdated IHK training from the 80s”. Instead, LAP relies on automation, standardized processes and a practical, visual learning infrastructure that does justice to today’s learning, he explains.
“We offer real career paths. Two of our four area managers started behind the bar,” emphasizes Hage. Area Managers manage several branches at LAP Coffee. This is the modern job market that rewards competence and growth – not certificates from another era, according to the founder. Berlin should support such models instead of punishing them with taxes.
Professions do not fit into the startup model
“Berlin punishes what it doesn’t understand,” criticized Moritz Kreppel, founder of Urban Sports Club, further the decision. Startups like his would have to pay because they wouldn’t offer apprenticeships for professions that didn’t even exist in their system. “Software developers, data analysts, international partner managers: These are not gaps in the system, they are the system,” he explains.
Training takes place daily on the job, in real time – “not according to a catalog that was last updated in 1985,” says Kreppel. The levy will not stop urban sports. “But it sends an expensive signal to every founder who is considering whether Berlin is the right place for their next company.”
Lack of structures and wrong incentives
Two other founders are also critical of the decision. “I think that’s nonsense,” says Agnieszka Walorska from fintech startup Mika to the levy. The core problem of the Berlin training market is not due to a lack of will on the part of companies. Rather, too few young people are interested in classic dual training – many positions remain unfilled.
“A penalty doesn’t change that at all,” she says. What is needed more is stable processes, certified trainers and suitable premises. “What does a trainee have to gain from starting in a company that is still fighting for survival and in which no one has time for him? And that, in case of doubt, goes bankrupt halfway through the training period?” Walorska herself experienced hurdles in her previous company when it came to approval as a training company, which stopped any plan.
And also Marius Meiners from Peec AI says: “Hiring trainees is absolutely not feasible for us.” His team consists of experienced specialists or young, highly ambitious people with 120 percent focus. “It wouldn’t work if one of our team members had to go to vocational school or study for exams,” he says.
They would therefore accept the financial penalty if necessary. Even if the punishment would not fundamentally change their planning, Meiners says: “It is of course a great shame that another obstacle is being put in the way, which, among many others, makes Germany itself unattractive as a location.” You can tell: the Berlin founders are not enthusiastic about this new decision.
