BEST PRACTICE: NEW WAYS TO RECRUIT SPECIALISTS

The recruitment of specialists is a major challenge in many industries and regions. In some regions, there are 100 job vacancies available but only 50 job searching people providing the desired professional qualifications. Hence, companies break new ground to attract skilled workers and, for example, look for suitable employees abroad or specifically target specialists with foreign professional qualifications.

In both cases, the formal recognition of professional qualifications plays a crucial role. For both, specialists from abroad as well as employees with foreign qualifications, a formal recognition of their professional qualification is obligatory to prove equivalence to German training standards.

Companies pursuing this strategy to recruit specialists promote the recognition of professional qualifications through numerous company offers like application assistance, covering costs, offering adapting qualifications or language courses, providing apartments and help with family reunification.

For example, a family-run business from Ingolstadt is always looking for qualified employees in the fields of electrical, sanitary, heating and refrigeration engineering as well as metalworking and steel construction – all related professions are in high demand and skilled workers are rare. The situation is also well known to a company from the South of Germany. The mechanical engineering company consisting of nine people is specialised in refrigeration engineering and air conditioning. Employing qualified personnel in this area is comparable to squaring the circle. Both companies have therefore decided to break new ground and to recruit foreign specialists or specialists with foreign qualifications.

INTERCULTURAL EXCHANGE SUPPORTS OUR BUSINESS. WE ALSO SEE OUR SOCIAL TASK IN PROMOTING INTEGRATION THROUGH WORK

Entrepreneur from Southern Germany

Both companies support applicants from abroad or those with foreign qualifications in a variety of ways to achieve the recognition of their professional qualification: 

• Assistance in compiling application documents
• Correspondence with the authorities and accompanying appointments 
• Absorption of costs
• In-house qualifications to achieve full equivalence

To establish themselves in their new home, the company also offers: 

• Lessons in German technical language (craft and industry) 
• Accommodation due to limited supply of apartments in the region 
• Absorption of day-care fees, financial support for obstetrics and weddings etc.

NOW WE ARE INDEPENDENT FROM THE GERMAN LABOUR MARKET AND AT THE SAME TIME WELL POSITIONED FOR THE FUTURE BECAUSE A COLOURFUL WORKFORCE PROMOTES AND STRENGTHENS COMPETITIVENESS.

Entrepreneur from Southern Germany