金融時報:學(xué)習(xí)德國好榜樣

學(xué)習(xí)德國好榜樣

“德國模式”為大西洋兩岸所矚目。美國政商界意識到，僅靠州之間在稅收上的競爭并不是長久的成功之道，美國應(yīng)借鑒德國強大競爭力的秘訣：教育體制。與德國相比，美國的勞動力顯得“既技能不足，又教育過度”：一方面350萬空缺崗位找不到合適員工，一方面大量擁有學(xué)位的的哥和門衛(wèi)在為償還學(xué)生貸款而發(fā)愁……

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

State of the Union speech 美國總統(tǒng)每年在國會發(fā)表的《國情咨文》。今年，奧巴馬引用西門子高管的話，說如果美國提升基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施，可以吸引外資創(chuàng)造更多就業(yè)。

vocational education 職業(yè)教育

apprentice [?'prent?s] n.學(xué)徒

apprenticeship [?'prent?(s)??p] n.學(xué)徒制，被認為是德國工業(yè)實力的基礎(chǔ)。

participation rate勞動參與率，是經(jīng)濟活動人口（就業(yè)者+失業(yè)者，失業(yè)者為失業(yè)但積極尋找工作者）占勞動年齡人口（一般15-65歲）的比率。

pilgrimage ['p?lgr?m?d?] n.朝圣

casino [k?'si?n??] n.賭場

covet ['k?v?t] v.垂涎

nocturnal [n?k't??n(?)l] adj.夜間的

rejuvenate [r?'d?u?v?ne?t] v.使復(fù)原，使年輕

pipe fitters and boilermakers 管道工和鍋爐工

Why the US is looking to Germany (931 words)

By Edward Luce

When asked by Tony Blair for the secret of her country’s resilience, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said: “We still make things.” It is a question you often hear in the US nowadays. It would be an exaggeration to say Germany is back in fashion. There is too much disapproval of Berlin’s handling of the eurozone crisis for that. Yet when it comes to the labour market, the US is suffering from a rising case of “German envy”, as one analyst puts it.

“People are continually asking me how we do it,” says Eric Spiegel, the US chief executive of Siemens, which has the distinction of being cited by Barack Obama in his last two State of the Union speeches. Getting a “shout out” from the US president may sound trivial – although executives at unuttered competitors, such as General Electric, do not see it that way. But Mr Obama was only repeating what was being widely said by many business leaders and trade unionists in the US. “Can we replicate the German model?” asks a centrist Democratic senator.

As a package, the answer is no. Germany channels roughly half of all high-school students into the vocational education stream from the age of 16. In the US that would be seen as too divisive, even un-American. More than 40 per cent of Germans become apprentices. Only 0.3 per cent of the US labour force does so. But with the US participation rate continuing to plummet – last month another 496,000 Americans gave up looking for work – many US politicians are scouring Germany for answers.

It is turning into something of a pilgrimage. Rick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan, and John Kasich, Republican governor of Ohio, have both recently toured vocational academies in Germany. The German embassy in Washington has even set up a programme called the “skills initiative” to cater to all the questions from the heartlands.

“The US is not a developing country so we don’t need to send teams of technical advisers into the field,” one German diplomat said. “We are just trying to respond to the curiosity about the German model.”

The longer the US recovery continues, the more that curiosity increases. The US faces a deepening mismatch between what its labour market needs and what the education system is producing. There are two sides to this paradox. First, the US is underskilled. It has high unemployment at a time when there are 3.5m job vacancies, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some economists argue that the US “skills gap” is imaginary – a shortage of engineers would have shown up in salary inflation, which has not happened. The average hourly cost of a US manufacturing worker is $32. In Germany it is $48. Yet US employers insist the shortage of skilled labour is a growing problem.

US states tend to outbid each other with tax breaks. This works well for casinos. But many states, such as Michigan and Ohio, are realising that what desirable investors most covet is skilled labour. According to the OECD, the US comes last out of 29 countries in terms of the work readiness of its high-school leavers. And 46 per cent of those who go to college fail to complete their four-year degree within six years. “Getting a tax holiday does not make up for having a bad business plan, it just delays the pain,” says a senior US executive at Daimler, the German carmaker, which has several US plants. “If you have a good plan, what you are really looking for is good people.”

Second, the US is overqualified. Almost half of Americans with a degree are in jobs that do not require one, according to a study by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Fifteen per cent of taxi drivers in the US have a degree, up from 1 per cent in 1970. Likewise, 25 per cent of sales clerks are graduates, against 5 per cent in 1970. An astonishing 5 per cent of janitors now have a bachelor’s degree. They must offer endless nocturnal moments to repent those student loans. Only at the top of the system do the labour and education markets mesh well. PhDs and postgraduates are the only US category to enjoy rising incomes, often dramatically so.

For a company such as Siemens, which has 60,000 American employees and recently reintroduced train manufacturing to the US (in a plant near Sacramento), the answer is simple. The US needs to rejuvenate its community colleges, which offer two-year vocational degrees but are often starved of funds. And it needs to fall back in love with apprenticeships. Benjamin Franklin started off as a printer’s apprentice in Boston. Many US trade unions, such as the pipe fitters and boilermakers, used to train their own. Perhaps they should remember their history.

Siemens, meanwhile, is angling for a third Obama mention. The group recently had 2,000 applications for 50 vacancies in North Carolina. Only 10 per cent passed the aptitude test. At a cost of $165,000 an apprentice, Siemens is training six local high-school leavers in “mechatronics”, a hybrid of mechanical engineering and computer science. These are robot supervisors. The company hopes apprenticeships will catch on in the US. It graduates 10,000 a year in Germany, a country that seems to have fewer problems with the underskilled or the overqualified. “There is a great potential for the reshoring of manufacturing to the US,” Mr Spiegel says. “But if companies have problems finding qualified people, a lot of it won’t happen.”

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1.Why US politicians are "scouring Germany for answers"?

A. Because President Obama called for "learning from Germany".

B. Only 0.3% of Americans become apprentices.

C. They are disappointed by the job market.

D. Because other European countried are also learning from Germany.

答案(1)

2.What can we learn about "something of a pilgrimage"?

A. Republicans are more keen on learning from Germany.

B. Many US companies are inviting German technical advisers.

C. The German embassy is sponsoring skills training programs.

D. States like Michigan and Ohio are struggling to revive manufacturing.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following can support the argument that the US faces "a deepening mismatch" between its labour market and education system?

A. US has high unemployment together with 3.5m job vacancies.

B. A shortage of engineers does not raise the wage level.

C. 25% of sales clerks are graduates, against 5% in 1970.

D. All of above.

答案(3)

4.For US policy makers, what might be the best treatment for the problem?

A. Increasing financial support for college student loans.

B. Attracting more German companies to invest in America.

C. Reviving America's good old tradition of apprenticeships.

D. Reshoring manufacturing back to the US.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：C.They are disappointed by the job market.

解釋：A也不對，因為Mr. Obama was only repeating what was being widely said... B實際上是解釋為什么將德國模式整體打包過來不可能。至于D，驕傲的美國人怎么肯跟歐洲人亦步亦趨？ 為何要用scouring擦亮這個詞呢？也許是美國人像阿拉丁對神燈一樣尋求答案吧。

(2) 答案：D.States like Michigan and Ohio are struggling to revive manufacturing.

解釋：A未提到，民主黨的奧巴馬和一位參議員也主張學(xué)習(xí)德國。BC也未提到，原文是德國外交官說，我們不需要向?qū)Πl(fā)展中國家那樣派出技術(shù)顧問團，只需要解答美國人的好奇。 五大湖“鐵銹州”作為衰落的老工業(yè)地帶，把目光放在制造業(yè)強大的德國，希望學(xué)習(xí)德國的職業(yè)教育，這是非常符合邏輯的事。讀懂財經(jīng)文章文字背后的含義，需要積累一些知識：鐵銹地帶深刻影響了美國的經(jīng)濟、政治和文化。

(3) 答案：C.25% of sales clerks are graduates, against 5% in 1970.

解釋：A無疑可以支持“美國人才市場失衡很嚴重”這一判斷，但不能支持“越來越失衡”的判斷。注意問題中的deepening，講的是一個動態(tài)的過程。B也類似，工程師的短缺只能說明“失衡嚴重”，而工資水平未提高的原因很多（比如外包和印度、中國的技術(shù)移民），但不可能是“失衡更嚴重”。按道理說，如果工程師越來越供不應(yīng)求，工資水平應(yīng)該上漲的。C是從overqualified這一角度的準(zhǔn)確回答：越來越多的大學(xué)生找不到腦力工作，只能去做售貨員、門衛(wèi)和的哥。（當(dāng)然作者絲毫沒有對這些崗位的不敬。）

(4) 答案：C.Reviving America's good old tradition of apprenticeships.

解釋：通讀全文可知，AB兩項甚至可能使問題惡化：已經(jīng)有很多人本可以通過職業(yè)教育找到好工作，卻讀了耗資不菲的大學(xué)而后悔；另外，文章最后引用西門子美國CEO說，如果在美國找不到合適的人才，企業(yè)是不愿意把制造業(yè)帶回美國的。作者在倒數(shù)第二段還引用本·富蘭克林，強調(diào)說學(xué)徒制并非德國特有，它其實根植于美國的傳統(tǒng)之中。Perhaps they should remember their history.

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