Germany: employers and unions launch a joint initiative to adapt occupational training to the challenges of ‘Industry 4.0’

Does the content of both the metals and electro-technical sectors’ initial and continuous occupation training programs actually suit the needs of industry’s future needs, i.e. of ‘Industry 4.0’? Three German employers’ bodies, Gesamtmetall, VDMA, and ZVEI together with the IG Metall trade union have decided to work together to answer this question and implement appropriate measures if necessary. In a cooperation agreement signed on the 21 April the social partners committed to analyzing the current situation and by the end of 2016 to have formulated concrete recommendations that will serve as the basis for designing new and freshly modernized occupational profiles in the sectors.
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New apprenticeship methods. In their cooperation agreement* the Federation of German Employers’ Associations in the Metal and Electrical Engineering Industries, Gesamtmetall, the Association of German machine Builders VDMA, the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association, and the IG Metall trade union recalled the extent to which digitalization had propelled technological progress to dizzying heights. In order for Germany’s metal and electro-technical industries to maintain th

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