In Kehl, Germans and French sit under one roof and help job seekers on both sides of the border. After ten years, a balance is drawn. There is also a wish for the future.
Kehl (dpa/lsw) – The first German-French service for cross-border job placement in Kehl, Baden, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. “Kehl is the only agency in which German and French colleagues work under one roof,” Astrid Holzer, head of cross-border cooperation at the Freiburg employment agency, told the German Press Agency. But there are other employment agencies for cross-border placement – including in Freiburg and Lörrach as well as in Mulhouse, Colmar and St. Louis in Alsace.
The job seekers in Kehl in the Ortenau district come mainly from Strasbourg and the surrounding area. “But there are also people who live in Germany and are interested in jobs in France,” said Holzer. The aim of the mediator is to have a “360-degree view”. “So it’s not just about going from Alsace to Germany.” In the past ten years, almost 10,000 people have received advice, and almost 4,000 of them have found work on both sides of the Rhine.
Those interested came from all sectors, from production, from sales and management, said Holzer. There is now a shortage of skilled workers on both sides of the Rhine. “We don’t want to poach the skilled workers from each other,” she assured. On average, around ten calls are made per working day in the agency.
Those responsible from both countries will meet on Tuesday (10.30 a.m.) in the neighboring city of Strasbourg. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and the labor ministers from Paris and Berlin, Olivier Dussopt and Hubertus Heil (SPD), are connected via video. Von der Leyen signed the contract when it was founded as Federal Minister of Labor at the time. The facility at Kehl station was established in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Franco-German friendship treaty.
Holzer made it clear that language is a hurdle. “Companies no longer put language skills first when it comes to helper jobs.” The application process is also different: “We advise people that a letter of motivation, a CV and a passport photo are expected in Germany.” Not all French qualifications are automatically recognized in Germany either.
The placement expert also has one wish: there should be the opportunity to qualify employees from both countries in a joint training course. As an example, she cited driving forklifts: “It’s still very difficult.”
The French department head Dussopt is in the limelight, because in France there have been mass protests and strikes against the government’s planned pension reform for weeks. The retirement age is to rise from 62 to 64. The pension reform is considered one of the central projects of President Emmanuel Macron.
