27.02.2024
Skilled workers for Germany
GIZ works! GIZ supports SMEs in recruiting skilled workers from abroad.
There is currently a lively debate taking place about the purpose of development cooperation and how it is implemented. The series GIZworks! showcases how GIZ achieves results – in partner countries and in Germany’s interests.
German companies are facing a shortage of skilled workers due to demographic changes and there are currently up to two million vacancies in Germany. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is helping to find solutions – together with its partners, it has placed around 6,500 foreign skilled workers and trainees in German companies since 2013.
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GIZ enables companies with staff shortages in Germany to recruit qualified skilled workers and trainees from abroad. At the same time, it makes sure that the workers’ home countries are not adversely impacted by this labour migration. GIZ is building on more than a decade of experience in this area. To date, various projects have made it possible for several thousand skilled workers and trainees to come to Germany to work.
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New service package for companies
In cooperation with the German Federal Employment Agency, GIZ has now pooled its services. The new package combines services that GIZ provides for the private sector, including recruiting, preparing and onboarding skilled workers from non-EU countries. The focus is on nursing and the hotel and catering industry as well as the electrical engineering, energy and building technology, IT and logistics sectors. The service package was presented to medium-sized enterprises at the skilled labour congress ‘Mehr Power fürs Fachkräfteland’ (More power for the skilled worker country) held in Berlin in February.
Fair and ethical skilled labour migration
GIZ keeps the requirements of the sending countries and workers in mind. Applicants receive information about the steps involved in the migration process and what is expected of them. Future employers also benefit from the fair placement process and pay conditions, as this contributes to skilled workers feeling respected by their employers and wanting to stay with the company for longer. And GIZ supports the workers’ home countries in improving their vocational training systems and creating a legal framework that enables fair migration, and it also takes care to ensure that labour migration does not lead to a local shortage of skilled workers.
Success in sectors with shortage occupations
As part of the Triple Win programme, GIZ has been working with the German Federal Employment Agency since 2013 to recruit nursing staff from several countries for healthcare facilities in Germany. And since 2019, the company has been running a programme on behalf of BMZ to support skilled workers and trainees from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco in filling vacancies in the German hotel and catering industry and other areas. Facilitating the migration of machinists from Viet Nam and electronics specialists from Ecuador has also been a focus of GIZ’s work since 2019. Projects such as these have already made it possible for around 6,500 skilled workers and trainees to come to Germany to work.
