Germany eyes skilled talent from India

Pune: Germany is looking to attract skilled talent from India. In the near future, the country would face a dearth of skilled human resources, especially in manufacturing and engineering sectors, its core strength.

The reason? In the next few years, half the German population would be aged more than 60.

Speaking to Business Standard, Michael Siebert, consul general of the German Consulate in Mumbai, said, “Due to demographic issues, half the German population would be aged more than 60. We need at least 40,000 skilled employees for various sectors, especially engineering. India has a lot of job opportunities in Germany. It has a lot of quality young people who would have a lot of opportunities, not only in manufacturing and automobiles, but also in service sectors such as finance, insurance, information technology, entertainment, publication and emerging sectors such as hospitality.”

Initially, German companies are eying local talent for their Indian subsidiaries. They plan to relocate the hired lot to Germany for a few years, in due course of time. The companies also have a similar policy for markets such as Poland and Brazil. A few German universities are attracting Indian students for research-based or doctoral studies. However, Germany does want to turn itself into an education market like the UK or Australia. This is because it seeks to enroll only quality students.

Germany is organising job fairs in India under the programme ‘Trained in GermanY’. In this, it is aided by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, Pune, and Alumniportal Deutschland, the German ministry for economic cooperation and development and the federal foreign office.

Siebert said research departments in Germany were affected by the shortage of skilled employees. Also, in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, there was increasing demand and competition for young and educated people. German companies located in BRICS nations valued local employees who had studied or been trained in Germany, particularly because they were familiar with the German economy, culture and language, he said.

Currently, trade between India and Germany stands at euro 18 billion. Also, there is a lot of technology and knowledge transfer between the two countries. So far, German companies have invested euro 3 billion in India and provided employment to about 5,00,000 Indian nationals.

Zubin Kabraji, regional director, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, Pune, said about 300 German companies had set up businesses in Pune. The total investment by these companies here stood at about euro 1 billion. The city also accounts for about 175 joint ventures between Indian and German entities. Most investments are in the manufacturing and automobile sectors.

Alumniportal Deutschland is an online community for people who have studied, conducted research, worked or received training in Germany or at a German institute abroad. On this portal, members can create and maintain professional profiles, take part in discussions and apply for job vacancies. Organisations and companies can create and maintain their profiles, put up job vacancies and scout for candidates for vacancies.