Whether energy and electrical engineering, computer science, machine and vehicle technology, civil engineering or building technology – if you are looking for a job as an engineer in Germany, you should has a growing selection. There were 387 vacancies for 100 applicants in the fourth quarter of 2021. A year later there were already 471. That is an increase of almost 22 percent.
At the end of 2022, there were a total of 170,300 job vacancies for engineers in Germany. It’s missing at every nook and cranny, the shortage of skilled workers is precarious, warns the industry association VDI, the Association of German Engineers. Public construction projects have now come to a standstill or cannot be started at all, digitization projects have fallen by the wayside.
More retirees, fewer students
in Deutschland, for decades heralded as the land of engineers and known worldwide for its technical know-how? “In Germany we actually lived from our good human resources in the past, that was our strength,” says graduate engineer Dieter Westerkamp, who heads the technology and society department at the VDI. But more and more pensioners face fewer and fewer students. “The bad thing is that the situation will not improve because demographic change is making itself felt.”
Dieter Westerkamp sees Germany as a business location in danger
In the engineering core subjects, the number of first-year students is declining significantly. In 2016, 143,400 young people nationwide started studying the so-called MINT subjects, i.e. mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology, but in 2022 there were only 125,600. “As a result, a significant decline in the number of graduates can be expected in the coming years,” says economist Axel Plünnecke from the Institute of German Economics in Cologne.
And this with a simultaneous increase in the need for engineers, especially in the field of climate-friendly technologies and products. In an IW survey, 43 percent of companies said they would need more engineers in the future and 63 percent more IT experts.
Gloomy prospects for Germany as a business location
Dieter Westerkamp warns that the industry is already keeping a close eye on the shortage. “From the industry we hear the statement that the shortage of skilled workers in Germany in the future is a condition that there is not so much to shake, it’s simply there.”
This eliminates a key argument in favor of Germany as a business location. “If you keep that in mind and know that things are different in other countries, then it will be difficult to convince the industry to invest here in the future and that would be fatal. We can’t afford that in Germany.” The prosperity of the country is at stake.
Foreign skilled workers – urgently needed
Without a strong immigration of skilled workers from abroad, the gap can no longer be closed, says Westerkamp. The number of foreign employees in engineering professions rose by 126.5 percent to around 105,000 between the end of 2012 and September 2022. Every tenth engineer already comes from abroad. But that is far from enough.
Politicians have recognized this and are currently reforming the immigration legislation. “Yes, the federal government has a skilled labor strategy in which immigration also has its place, we at the VDI welcome that very much, but we simply have to take a closer look here again to ensure that we actually have to implement and tackle things now. Otherwise the development in Germany will go in the wrong direction.”
bottleneck management
Above all, this means the bureaucratic hurdles that every entrepreneur who wants to hire a specialist from abroad knows. Westerkamp knows many examples, he gets them mirrored again and again from the industry. “It takes seven months before an Indian specialist, and in this case an engineer, is allowed to work here in Germany. These are simply periods of time that we cannot and must not afford, other countries may be quicker during this time and poach this person away from us .”
There is also a shortage of skilled workers in administration
Weeks go by simply because documents from the immigration authorities in Germany are sent by post to the embassy abroad, complains economist Plünnecke, who is calling for more digitization and more staff in the authorities. Then it takes another month to get an appointment to apply for a visa at an embassy. The administration is the bottleneck in the skilled labor strategy. “You can also put it this way: They have the car that is now supposed to be immigration. They have improved the engine, these are the immigration rules, they advertise, so they also have more fuel in the tank. But the tires are still for Tempo 30 laid out.”
Universities as points of attraction
German universities and above all the technical universities offer great potential for immigration into engineering and computer science professions. This is shown by a look at the regional distribution of employees in engineering professions. In any case, an above-average number of engineers work in districts with a TU location. However, the proportion of foreign engineers there has increased particularly dynamically in the last ten years.
Technical universities, like here in Chemnitz, attract with future-oriented research and innovation
This is because, until the outbreak of the corona pandemic, more and more foreign students were drawn to the technical universities in Germany. “It was difficult because of Corona, but we now have to bring more foreign students to Germany again,” demands Westerkamp.
Mentoring program at eye level
To bring into the country is one thing, the other is to keep the foreigners in Germany. Half of the foreign university graduates leave Germany directly after their studies “and take the knowledge they have acquired here with them, so to speak”. You have to care more about the people which you have won with difficultydemands Westerkamp.
In North Rhine-Westphalia the VDI is working on a pilot project in which members of the association are to accompany foreign colleagues as mentors on their way into the world of work and society. At eye level, as the VDI says. “You then go to events together with those who have just come to Germany, and we really want to do that systematically and in a targeted manner.”
Welcome culture necessary
In addition, targeted training and further education packages are in the works, which “should build bridges into future technologies”. It is also important to build “international communities”, i.e. networks in companies and regions, through which it is then easier to attract other immigrants in engineering professions.
Graduate engineer Westerkamp also sees society as having a duty. “Now I’m really looking at the general population, we really need a culture that welcomes skilled workers. We need these people, otherwise we will have a hard time with our quality of life in Germany in the future.”