When Emrullah Karaca started working at a factory in Gifhorn, Germany, where auto parts supplier Continental makes components for hydraulic brakes, he was looking for temporary employment after finishing high school.
But after spending more than two decades building a career at the factory, Mr. Karaca, 49, a father of three, learned that Continental planned to close the plant by 2027. Faced with a search for arduous job, he will return to the factory. school to obtain his trade certificate, courtesy of his employer.
It’s a necessary step if he wants to find a job in Germany, where, despite the dire shortage of qualified workers, degrees and certifications still count more than work experience. “I never needed it until now, because I was always there,” Mr. Karaca said.
The training program that Mr. Karaca and 80 of his colleagues will follow is part of an initiative launched by Continental to help employees acquire the skills they need for new jobs, either within Continental or in neighboring businesses.
Continental is not alone in facing the challenges of Germany’s changing industrial landscape, as the manufacturing sector transforms to meet carbon reduction targets, creating upheaval within the workforce. ‘artwork. So in 2021, it joined 70 other companies – including Bayer, DHL, Infineon and Siemens – to form the Alliance for Opportunity, an initiative intended to help them retain the 2.7 million people in their workforce collective work.
Experts praised the alliance. Germany has lagged behind its peers in manufacturing automation, and as its industry keeps pace, the country faces thousands of job cuts in the auto sectors and engineering, even though more than 700,000 positions in all sectors remain vacant.
“It’s basically about the conflicting priorities we currently have: on the one hand, job cuts combined with difficult personnel adjustment processes, and on the other, a labor shortage” , said Jutta Rump, director of the Institute. for employment and employability in Ludwigshafen.
In Gifhorn, where Continental produces brake lines and valve blocks, the company was facing falling demand and rising energy costs, and it became clear that the factory would soon no longer be viable.
“We knew we would need a lot fewer employees,” said Ariane Reinhart, Continental board member and head of human resources.
That left Mr. Karaca — and about 800 other employees — facing an uncertain future. “We all thought we would be here until we retired,” he said.
German companies have a tradition of social responsibility, and Continental executives were keenly aware of the role the plant played in the community of 41,000, where it was the third largest employer.
“There were two possible options: either you do it the classic way – and classic means a lot of loud strikes, union politics and involvement of politicians,” said Ms Reinhart, who helped found the training center from the Continental company in 2019. “Or you find a new way of doing things.
Germany prides itself on its vocational training, offered through a dual-track system combining school courses and practical work experience. About 330 occupations require a trade certificate, and anyone without one is out of luck, no matter what skills they learned on the job.
“Without certified qualifications, it is difficult to even be invited for an interview,” said Sven Mewes, a member of Continental’s human resources team, who works with employees like Mr. Karaca to determine what training or courses suit them. .
Training courses like those offered by Continental and other alliance members have found support from Berlin and regional governments. Political leaders are keen to keep as many people working as possible.
Despite budget cuts in many areas last year, the government set aside more than 3 billion euros, or $2.79 billion, for companies to offer training programs and certification courses to employees facing the loss of their jobs.
In Germany, almost 20 percent of people out of work for more than two years have no formal qualifications, which can keep them on the sidelines as they prefer to get low-paid jobs rather than dedicate three years of their lives to earn money. a certificate.
At an alliance conference this year, Andrea Nahles, director of the Federal Employment Agency, cited the example of the employment agency in the western city of Mönchengladbach, where the local agency unemployment office selected 130 people from among the long-term unemployed to begin training to obtain their trade certificates and start well-paid jobs.
Then Amazon opened a warehouse in town, attracting all but 13 of the original participants to work on the floor for €16.50 an hour, with no certification required. But several months later, they were all laid off and placed on unemployment, Ms. Nahles said.
“They found themselves in the same situation,” she said. “It shows how difficult the whole process can be.”
Beyond internal training, Continental has taken a step further to help its Gifhorn staff, reaching out to other area companies looking for workers and offering to train its departing employees for potential new positions.
For Stiebel Eltron, a heat pump producer that needs hundreds of workers to expand, the offering proved fortuitous. The company signed an agreement with Continental last year, agreeing to invest 65 million euros to take over part of the existing factory and hire more than a third of Gifhorn’s employees. The state of Lower Saxony is investing an additional 5 million euros in the project, the exact terms of which have not been revealed by either company.
“We are giving 300 people a perspective, a future,” Ms Reinhart said.
This week, Continental announced that arms maker Rheinmetall, which has expanded rapidly to meet demand for additional munitions for the war in Ukraine, had agreed to hire up to 100 workers at a factory less than of one hour, thus guaranteeing future employment for almost half of Gifhorn’s total workforce.
Before starting their new jobs, Continental employees will have the opportunity to improve their skills through the company’s in-house training center, one of 14 it operates at its factories across the country. So far, workers aged 28 to 60 have registered for qualifications to become industrial electricians, warehouse logistics specialists or machine and factory operators.
Classes take place during working hours and are scheduled according to the participants’ work schedules. Workers continue to earn their wages while they take classes, which take place over several months, instead of the usual three years.
Mr. Karaca, who cares for one child in college and two others in high school, said that despite the disappointment of his tenure at the company ending, he was grateful for the opportunity to find a new job.
“This is the right decision for my future,” Mr. Kacara said. “I have to be able to show what I can do.”
