One promising approach in the fight against the shortage of skilled workers in Germany is the targeted immigration of skilled workers from abroad. A successful joint project by the housing company Vonovia, the CITT and the Hanover Chamber of Industry and Commerce shows how this can be done: After 14 months of practical experience at Vonovia and additional compensatory qualification in the CITT, 13 Vonovia employees from Colombia have now received recognition for the first time for their professional qualification as electronics technicians for building and infrastructure systems. As a result, the Colombian skilled workers can now be taken on as permanent employees. Their existing knowledge was taken into account by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the missing content of the equivalence test for the recognition of professional qualifications in Germany were trained in the CITT.
Successful project opens doors for skilled workers on the German labour market
This is not only a great success for the companies involved – many doors are now open to the skilled workers from Colombia as well. At the recognition ceremony at the Hanover Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the representatives of Vonovia and Continental paid tribute to the participants: "This is a good day for all of us. In order to attract new skilled workers, we have gone beyond our borders and have found qualified and courageous people in Colombia to whom we have been able to offer a perspective. They jumped at this chance for a new life and made the best of it. As of today, they are fully recognized skilled workers on the German labor market for whom all doors are open," explained Ruth Werhahn, Chief Human Resources Officer at Vonovia. The CHRO also emphasized that the Colombian employees are well integrated and do a very good job, a success that is due to the excellent teamwork of all those involved.
The CITT as a training provider was also pleased with the good result: "The people recruited in Colombia had basic knowledge of German and the will to integrate in Germany. Together with the partners, we have designed a model that combines language acquisition, process-based learning and alignment of German professional requirements. In this way, we have shown how foreign employees can be successfully qualified and integrated into skilled workers in a short period of time," says Dr. Ariane Reinhart, Continental's Executive Board Member for Human Resources and Sustainability.
Second round of the successful project with 26 electronics engineers has already started
The skilled workers from Columbia, who were recruited as part of the "TEAM" program of the Federal Employment Agency, had already learned German in advance and passed a language exam. After entering the country in September 2022, they were qualified by the educational institution Continental. Vonovia supported the new colleagues in dealing with the authorities and organized apartments for them. The Hanover Chamber of Industry and Commerce supported the participants on a part-time basis and, as part of the equivalence test, determined the necessary qualification content and times in order to achieve full recognition of the professional qualifications.
The basis for the project is the Skilled Immigration Act, which came into force in 2020 and has since been expanded. It accelerates the possible recognition of existing foreign professional qualifications and gives immigrant skilled workers up to two years to acquire partial qualifications or knowledge of common technologies that are missing in Germany. After the successful pilot, the second qualifying round started at the end of 2023, for which Vonovia recruited 26 electronics technicians in Colombia. For these specialists, who are to support the expansion of photovoltaic systems at Vonovia throughout Germany, the recognition qualification is already underway together with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Continental.
