IAccording to a preliminary report by the Funke media group, more and more young people with foreign nationality have completed training in Germany. The number has increased by 64 percent over the past ten years, from 33,500 to almost 55,000 trainees. One in three comes from one of the eight largest countries of origin for asylum seekers: Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. This was the result of a representative study by the Competence Center for Securing Skilled Workers (Kofa) at the German Economic Institute, which is available to the Funke media group.
The number of international trainees doubled, particularly in shortage professions. This has increased significantly in many professions in the catering industry, but also in the skilled trades, as the study showed. There is particular demand for training in professions that are important for energy and climate change, such as construction electrical engineering.
Nevertheless, the skilled worker situation in Germany remains tense. According to a study, the number of vacancies fell in September and fell by 13 percent compared to the previous year. However, with a seasonally adjusted 510,000 vacancies, the skills gap remains at a high level, as the same study shows.
According to this, on average more than four out of ten positions could not be filled with suitably qualified personnel. Experts see the difficult economic situation as the main reason for the slight decline in job vacancies. However, the need has increased significantly in some sectors. There are currently significantly more vacancies for skilled workers in renewable energy technology. Compared to the previous year, the study recorded an increase of 190 percent. Significant job growth can also be observed in other professions that are important for the energy transition. “The increasing skills gap in these professions can jeopardize the achievement of climate goals,” estimates study author Valeria Quispe.
The personnel situation is particularly tense in the areas of “monitoring and control of railway traffic operations” and “building technology”. In both occupational categories there are only eleven suitably qualified unemployed people for every 100 positions. The need for skilled workers varies considerably depending on the professional group. A particularly significant decline compared to the previous year was recorded in the area of “linguistics, literature, humanities, social and economic sciences, media, art, culture and design” (-13.9 percent).
While the number of job vacancies has decreased, the number of qualified unemployed people rose to more than one million in September. That is 7.8 percent more than in September 2022. “It would be worthwhile to take a look at semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Through targeted further training, at least some of them could be trained to become qualified specialists,” says expert Quispe.
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