Sooty

Our local chimney sweep sent around the young lads to do the second and last clean of the year. The one on the left is new to us so must be the junior apprentice who started in August/September when the apprentice year starts for all jobs in Germany.

I don't know of anyone who doesn't go to university who doesn't start a formal apprenticeship. They are as a rule 3 years long, a mixture of on the job & classroom study. All highly controlled and I think minimum wages set - from hairdresser to journalist, bricklayer to CNC machine operator, from road construction specialist to nurse. Only businesses with someone holding a Masters certificate in that profession can take on apprentices. The Master's certificate is normally a further two or three years long, often done after a five or so long period after the initial apprenticeship. In many cases, it is not possible to set up your own business without a Masters certificate especially where safety is concerned eg electrician & indeed chimney sweep.

In general businesses from Mercedes Benz to the local baker and hairdresser are desperate to recruit apprentices. There are simply not enough to fill the German needs for future craftspeople. Partly due of course to the perception in the last few decades that one wanted the offspring to have a university degree, regardless of its future worth for an income or to society. One traditionally says in German "Good crafts qualifications has a golden base".

The German highly controlled chimney sweep laws had to be liberalised following a judgement by the EU forced through by countries like the UK who wanted open markets. So now we are free to use a sweep from Poland, Finland, Greece or indeed until January 31st 2020 from the UK.

However, there remains the obligation of the district chimney sweep to control every few years that the number of cleans and checks of CO²/fine dust ommissions are being done correctly, are documented and he controls the physical state of the fires. He also has to approve all new fire installations whether a simple wood-burning stove or large scale industrial oil/gas heating system.

I have never seen a Joe Smith's Sweep Services of Walthamstow van tearing down the autobahn so, in practice, nothing has changed: Mr Dischl and/or his team come around twice a year, we shake hands in the hope of getting some luck but always happens that twice a year an invoice pops through the letterbox a few weeks later.

I think the sweep on the left is probably a retired colleague who steps in at peak times and the one on the right will probably take over the district when Chief Sweep retires. It is actually a pretty good job with a guaranteed income but who knows how much longer fossil fuel heating will be with us.