Andrea Nahles the Minister for Employment invited the social partners to a meeting on November 20 where both agreed on setting up a “Partnership for skilled workers”, which is a process that will create working groups on themes such as training and activation of skilled German workers and the integration of outside skilled workers into Germany. In addition to foreign workers, the partnership looks to focus on women, the low-skilled and older workers. Contrary to earlier initiatives of the genre ‘green card’ or ‘blue card’, this partnership is not focused solely on the highly skilled and highly paid. Even though the Employment Agency has not as yet identified a general shortage of skilled labor, certain sectors are experiencing a lack of manpower and is coming at a difficult time in terms of forecasted demographics.
A steering group at the top. “Employment is currently at record levels to keep it there we have to address the issues full on”, explained the Minister for Employment, Andrea Nahles on Thursday November 20 during the inaugural session of the “Partnership for skilled workers” in the presence of representatives from the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Research and Development, the German Federation of Employers (BA), the Confederation of German Unions (DGB), the IG Metall union (metallurgy and automobiles) the IG BCE union (chemicals and energy), the German Industry Chamber of Commerce Association (DIHK), the German Crafts Federation and the Federal Agency for Employment (BA), each one a member of the new partnership.
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