People who want to apply to you look you up online first. The trade journal Handwerksblatt reports the same: a website of your own helps you win skilled workers and apprentices, because applicants first check how a business presents itself. If they find nothing about you, they apply somewhere else.
What the numbers from the region show
In 2026, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Halle-Dessau (IHK) surveyed businesses in the region about training, and 73 businesses took part. They are not only trade businesses. The Chamber of Crafts collects its own figures. Still, the results give a direction:
- By the end of August 2026, 3,146 new apprenticeship contracts had been registered in the IHK district.
- More than half of the surveyed businesses could not fill all the places they offered last training year. The main cause: no suitable applications, or none at all.
- 96 per cent of businesses see shortcomings in training readiness, above all in resilience, willingness to perform and motivation.
In short: fewer applications come in than there are places. Whoever is found and makes a good first impression has an advantage.
What a careers page has to do
A careers page is a page of its own on your website, only for applicants. It answers, within a minute, the questions that a young person or their parents have.
- What you offer: which apprenticeships, from when, for how long. A clear headline, no filler.
- What everyday work looks like: what do apprentices actually do at your business? Show real photos of real staff and sites, no stock images.
- Who the contact is: name, photo, phone number and WhatsApp. Many young people do not like to phone, but are happy to write.
- Applying in one step: a short form or a call, no cover letter needed. The fewer hurdles, the more people get in touch.
- A work placement: KSB from Halle, named Germany’s best trainer in 2026, awards training places only to applicants who have done a placement first. For 20 apprentices, it makes contact with about 2,000 young people beforehand. A placement as a first step is worthwhile for small businesses as well.
- What makes you an employer: say honestly what you offer. The IHK survey names long journeys to vocational school, missing transport links and a lack of housing as hurdles. If you help with travel costs or accommodation, it belongs on the page.
So that applicants find the page
- One page per trade: “apprenticeship as a heating engineer” is a different search from “apprenticeship as an electronics technician”. Each page answers exactly one of them.
- Keep your Google Business Profile up to date: parents and young people also search for your business. Opening hours, photos and reviews count.
- Job ads with structured data: with the right code, jobs can appear in Google’s job search.
- Built for the phone: many young people search on a smartphone. The page must load fast and be readable without zooming.
According to estimates from SEO tools, people in Germany search about 880 times a month for “Karriereseite” (careers page) and about 720 times for “Mitarbeiter finden Handwerk” (finding staff, trades). These are businesses with the same problem as you.
Help from the region
The IHK office in Dessau brings businesses and schools together from year 8 with its initiative “BlickPunkt Unternehmen”. Businesses can introduce themselves as employers and make early contact with the next generation. The contact is Carolin Krone, telephone +49 340 26011-27. The latest events took place in Wittenberg, Dessau and Köthen.
Where we help
We build the careers page as part of your website: with one page per trade, applying in one step, a section for work placements and a Google Business Profile that fits. Every month you get a report with visitors, calls and enquiries.
In a free first call of 30 minutes, we look at what your business is missing today.
Sources
- IHK Halle-Dessau: Mitteldeutsche Wirtschaft 05/2026, pages 8, 10 and 11: BlickPunkt Unternehmen and training survey 2026 (German; ihk.de/halle/ausbildungsumfrage2026)
- Handwerksblatt: Handwerk 4.0, successful with your own company website (German)