by Pranavi Sai
Over the past few years, there has been a decline in the working-age population in Germany. With the skilled working force – particularly the baby boomers – starting to retire, the country is in need of people who can replace them with either higher level or mirrored skill sets.
The repercussions of the reduced workforce can lead to increased participation of older workers, not having enough time to upskill, and increased responsibilities on the existing workers, to name a few. Hence, Germany is always on the lookout for new measures to increase the number of skilled workers within the country through various means.
Government Initiatives
There are government-run programs like Make it in Germany which is an online platform providing information to international talents interested in coming to Germany on a job opportunities, demanded skill sets, visa requirements, practical tips on living in Germany and similar others.
Another well-known project is the Hand in Hand for International Talents which focuses on employing foreign talents from countries like Brazil, India, and Vietnam in small and medium-sized companies in Germany. The project takes care of the complete coordination between the companies and the talents including a selection of suitable candidates, the matching process, initiation, and support throughout the professional recognition process, arrangement of the German language courses to assist with visa and entry.
Community Initiatives
We then have communities like IAD (Indian Association Dresden), which help their respective country nationals coming to Germany, particularly to Dresden, with comfortable moving, familiarizing them with the city, and its culture, connecting them with another fellow country nationals to build their social network and arrange various events to keep the cultural spark alive.
DEGIS (The German Association of International Students) is another great example that works in the capacity of an NGO connecting international students from all over Germany and offering them space to discuss different aspects of a community like politics, society, business, technology, education, and by organizing events, network parties, seminars, and receptions for them. They also arrange workshops that help these students navigate through day-to-day life and unemployment in Germany.
Company Initiatives
Last but not least, companies like intap network provide an all-rounded approach to above-mentioned initiatives by connecting highly qualified international talents with the local industry in Saxony. It does it through its unconventional and varied networking and recruiting event formats (both in-person and virtual) that enable the companies and the talents to network in a comfortable environment. It also conducts regular workshops and coaching sessions for talents helping them acquaint themselves with the local industry and job market in Saxony. This eventually helps talents prepare themselves better for the job market.
It is generally not easy for any international to sail through life in a different country. But initiatives, programs/projects, and companies like these aim to make it easy and slowly bring a sense of belonging after the transition.
Pranavi Sai is from India. She is pursuing her Master’s degree in Distributed Systems Engineering at TU Dresden. Furthermore, she is employed as a working student at intap network.
