Berlin business launches new project to recruit skilled workers in Windhoek. A training center is to be built in the Namibian capital, where testing will be carried out according to German standards. The hope of business is that lengthy recognition procedures will thus be eliminated. In the fight against the shortage of skilled workers on the German labor market, young people will in future be trained in Berlin’s twin city Windhoek. A new training center is to be built in the Namibian capital under the technical management of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry. First of all, it should be about professions with a large demand for skilled workers, such as commercial or industrial professions and the hospitality industry. „We want and we must take new paths to close the growing skills gap“, Chamber of Industry and Commerce President Sebastian Stietzel told the German Press Agency. In Berlin alone, hundreds of thousands of specialists and workers would be missing in the coming ten years. „Our goal is for the ’Talent Bridge’ to become a model for other regions as well, thus becoming another tool for securing skilled workers.“ According to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, young people in Namibia should be tested according to German standards, and they should learn German before and in parallel with their training. „Lengthy recognition procedures are therefore no longer necessary and trainees can move from Windhoek to Berlin and be integrated into the local labor market immediately after passing the exam“, it is said. There will definitely not be a „bran drain“, i.e. the multiple exodus of well-educated workers. Both the demand for skilled workers in Germany and youth unemployment of around 50 percent as well as the generally low level of education in Namibia should be combated. It is assumed that not all trained young people wanted to come to Berlin immediately. The relevant authorities in Windhoek supported the project. According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the partners include the city of Windhoek, the Namibian Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Berlin Senate. A memorandum of understanding is to be signed in the Namibian capital this autumn so that the construction of the training center can begin promptly. Next summer, the town twinning between Berlin and Windhoek will celebrate its 25th anniversary.
08.10.2024