We had something like that in Germany, if you opted out of military service, you had to do civil service instead, i.e. you had to work in an institution that provided some benefit to the general public.
Most of those jobs were healthcare related, such as working in a hospital, as ambulance driver, kindergarten teacher, assisted living helper etc., or working in a supervisory rule for a company that employed people with disabilities to make sure they don’t get injured in the workplace.
Both my brother and I did it (they later scraped military service, and the civil service as a consequence), and it was really amazing. He went to work in a food factory where people with mental disabilities were employed to sort raw ingredients (think removing debris and washing fruit and vegetables for juice, yoghurt & pickling), I worked as a nurse in a hospital.
Gave both of us a good twist for our careers, he moved on to study education for people with disabilities and now works as a special ed teacher for an integrative school, I went on to work in the development aid sector all across Africa and Central Asia for years.
Overworked healthcare staff since nobody can realistically replace the cheap labor coming from a government program, plus an understaffed military (180k personnel instead of 203k as per the budget).
There’s the federal volunteer service, which is the spiritual successor. Basically the same thing, but without being forced into it. There also voluntary social or ecological years, which is kind of the same thing as well.
We had something like that in Germany, if you opted out of military service, you had to do civil service instead, i.e. you had to work in an institution that provided some benefit to the general public.
Most of those jobs were healthcare related, such as working in a hospital, as ambulance driver, kindergarten teacher, assisted living helper etc., or working in a supervisory rule for a company that employed people with disabilities to make sure they don’t get injured in the workplace.
Both my brother and I did it (they later scraped military service, and the civil service as a consequence), and it was really amazing. He went to work in a food factory where people with mental disabilities were employed to sort raw ingredients (think removing debris and washing fruit and vegetables for juice, yoghurt & pickling), I worked as a nurse in a hospital.
Gave both of us a good twist for our careers, he moved on to study education for people with disabilities and now works as a special ed teacher for an integrative school, I went on to work in the development aid sector all across Africa and Central Asia for years.
I read that as: They scrapped the whole thing as a consequence of you and your brother doing it? You must have been really bad.
So what does Germany have now that they’ve scrapped it?
Overworked healthcare staff since nobody can realistically replace the cheap labor coming from a government program, plus an understaffed military (180k personnel instead of 203k as per the budget).
There’s the federal volunteer service, which is the spiritual successor. Basically the same thing, but without being forced into it. There also voluntary social or ecological years, which is kind of the same thing as well.