Germany Launches Alliance to Fairly Recruit Skilled Workers Millicent Awiti, originally from Kenya, now drives public buses in Flensburg, northern Germany. Guido Seifen, managing director of the German company Omexom Hochspannung, which employs around 500 people and builds major power lines, highlights the growing challenge of finding skilled workers for dispersed construction sites. He emphasizes that such jobs often require sacrificing family life and stability. To address this, Seifen is exploring recruitment in Vietnam through a German-Vietnamese development cooperation project. Vietnam, transitioning to renewable energy with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), has established a training center for overhead line technicians. Omexom plans to collaborate with EVN, Vietnam’s electricity provider, by bringing Vietnamese instructors to Germany for training aligned with local standards, including certification from the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. GIZ is also introducing German language courses at the Vietnamese training center. The goal is to train enough technicians so that approximately half can be offered jobs in Germany—up to 200 individuals—creating a "win-win situation." The federal government aims to support such projects through the newly established "WE-Fair alliance for the fair recruitment of skilled workers." This alliance focuses on attracting foreign skilled workers while strengthening training systems in their home countries. Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan emphasized the urgency, noting Germany’s aging population: over 20% of employees are aged 55 or older and will retire within the next decade. Demographic projections indicate Germany will need 400,000 foreign skilled workers annually over the next decade, requiring around 1.6 million annual immigrants.#germany #millicent_awiti #guido_seifen #omexom_hochspannung
