Amid rapid evolutions in the world of work due to digitalisation, the ecological transition and demographic change, 26 large German companies employing a combined total of around one million people in the country have decided to join forces and form a so-called “Alliance of Chances”. This initiative, which is backed by employers' associations as well as the chemicals sector trade union IG BCE, has been formed to help employees whose jobs are under threat to retrain for new professions or to work in sectors hit by labour shortages. It is hoped that this effort will help avoid redundancies, allow employees to maintain their employability and enable job-to-job transfers without periods of unemployment. Marcel Verweinen, head of human resources at Continental in Germany, the German atechnology company, which is one of the founding members of the alliance, spoke to Planet Labor about the origins of this project, its objectives and strategies as well as the efforts already undertaken by Continental to foster the retraining of its staff.
What are the reasons behind Continental opting to co-found the “Alliance of Chances”?
The idea was born at a meeting between DAX30 companies and politicians on the effects of industrial transformation. As a supplier of automotive parts, we are being heavily impacted by this transformation and we wondered whether other firms were being affected to the same extent. During this meeting, we realised that all companies in Germany, across all sectors, are affected by this disruption. The so-called “fo
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