Education Minister & Luxembourg City Mayor Host Exchange with VDL’s Youth Apprentices

On Wednesday 26 February 2025, the Mayor of Luxembourg City, Lydie Polfer, welcomed, in the presence of aldermen Patrick Goldschmidt and Paul Galles, Luxembourg’s Minister of Education, Children and Youth, Claude Meisch, as part of an exchange visit with apprentices from the City of Luxembourg (Ville de Luxembourg - VDL).

The exchange visit took place in the workshops of the Vehicles and Maintenance Service as well as in the Bonnevoie swimming pool, with apprentices in the trades of car and motorcycle mechatronic engineering, swimming instruction, computer science, bicycle mechatronic engineering, carpentry and landscape nursery.

Since 2020, the VDL, which is among the five main employers in the country, has had an average of 50 apprentices under apprenticeship contracts each year. With a success rate of 71% calculated over the last five years, six out of ten apprentices have also benefited at the end of their apprenticeship from a commitment under a permanent contract in the qualified employee scheme.

In addition to the professions mentioned above, the VDL supervises and trains young people in the following apprenticeship professions: socio-pedagogical agent, administrative agent, horticulturist, body repairer, automotive sector warehouse worker, and "smart technologies". The main apprenticeship professions are directly linked to professions where the VDL annually and continuously hires qualified workers, namely the following professions:

- thirteen swimming instructors in the Sports Department;
- eleven socio-pedagogical agents (formerly known as care assistants) in the School Centres and Municipal Crèches Departments;
- seven nursery-landscapers in the Parks Department.

The VDL noted that, as a result of a shortage of qualified labour available on the job market, quality apprenticeships within its services are of high importance to them, detailing that, alongside tutors in the home services, young apprentices are supported in their practical training process by the Youth Supervisor and the Advisor of the VDL’s Human Resources Department. The latter provides academic support and concrete monitoring of school reports, practical and educational modules followed with the VDL, their intermediate and final integrated project, their absences and motivations.

The following apprenticeship positions could not be filled for the 2024/2025 school year due to a lack of sufficient applications available on the job market, corresponding to the profile sought: marble worker, bodywork specialist, electrician, maintenance mechanic, utility vehicle mechatronics engineer and qualified logistics manager.

SM