India gearing to meet acute workforce shortage in Germany
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, December 7: Amid an assessment that acute shortage of skilled workforce is poised to become the key challenge for Germany in the near future, India is bracing up to seize the opportunity. The visit of the German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock during which she held bilateral with her counterpart S Jaishankar committed to boost travel of Indian students, researchers, businessmen to Germany.
The 12th meeting of the Indo-German joint working group on Wednesday noted that there is great potential for workforce mobility from India to Germany. Almost one-third of Germany’s Blue Card recipients in 2021 were from India. The joint working group noted complementarities between the requirements of skills and talents in Germany and the skilled manpower in India.
The NSDCI recently conducted study to analyse workforce demand in 16 destination countries (2022-2027). “Acute shortage of skilled workforce is poised to become the key challenge for Germany in the near future which highlights the need for global skill mapping to capitalize on the emerging trends in different industries. The demand for skilled workforce will be the most in manufacturing, healthcare, wholesale and retail, science and information technology and construction,” noted the report.
The Indo-German joint working group deliberated on vocational education and training (VET). The deliberations at the meeting were aimed at institutionalizing a standard mechanism for VET to meet the skill requirements in priority sectors as per the German standards. A skill mapping exercise will be undertaken to assess the skill gaps and based on the same, bridge courses and upskilling programmes will be designed for skill training of Indian workers.
KK Dwivedi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Alexander Hochradel, Senior Policy Officer of division 222: ERASMUS; International Cooperation in Vocational Training, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) co-chaired the meeting.
During the meeting, the two partner countries discussed on establishing a framework for employer connect and get an understanding on how skilled certified workers could participate in economic development mutual accreditation of training providers in both countries through G2G, G2B and B2B tie-ups with relevant institutions which have international standards for training, assessment, and certifications will also be undertaken.
About The Author
