An initiative launched in Germany, named ‘Arbeit 2020 in NRW’, has been looking at, among other things, how companies can adjust to the trend of digitalisation while avoiding a negative impact on their workforce. The project is co-funded by the European Social Fund and was launched in 2015 by the employment ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia, in partnership with the IG Metall union. As part of the initiative, a team of experts conducts a department by department assessment of companies, producing a ‘digitalisation map’. Off the back of this assessment, a company agreement is drawn up. The aim of this agreement is to set out an action plan, so the process of digitalisation and the shift in training needs at the firm is subject to continuous discussions with social partners. The first phase of the initiative unfolds over the period between 2015 and 2019 and is intended to affect between 30 and 40 firms from the metal sector alone. With five relevant company agreements already signed, the leader of the project Gabi Schilling, from IG Metall, tells Planet Labor more about it.
Shedding fears. Ms Schilling explains that not enough had been done to assess the effects of the “digitalisation of the economy”. She says: “We know that it will revolutionise economic structures and the ways in which we work, and that this will require huge training efforts on the part of companies. Ms Schilling, who is a board member of IG Metall’s local division in North Rhine-Westphalia and is coordinating the Arbeit 2020 in NRW project, adds: “We don’t know much more than that. And if we c
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