Schwerin (dpa/mv) – In view of a growing shortage of skilled workers in business and administration in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the state government is preparing new measures to recruit new employees and train existing employees. The establishment of further training associations is to be supported, as Economics Minister Reinhard Meyer (SPD) announced on Tuesday after a meeting of the “Advisory Board for the Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian Skilled Workers Strategy”. Several companies in an industry should join forces with scientists and training providers to jointly organize courses for their employees. A schedule was not communicated.
After graduation, students are to be better kept in the north-east than has been the case up to now. To this end, the career centers of the universities are to be linked more closely with the “Welcome Centers” of the municipalities. In the coming year, a simultaneous careers week is also planned at all universities in the state.
Vocational training is to be brought back into focus – an advertising campaign is planned for this from the second half of 2023. “The target groups are schoolchildren, school leavers and parents,” explained Meyer. It should be made clear that not only academic but also vocational training opens up perspectives.
Vocational orientation and economic education are to be strengthened at schools. The Ministry of Education was commissioned by Simone Oldenburg (left). The aim is therefore to enable more school-leaving qualifications that directly entitle students to take up an apprenticeship – this is at least the Hauptschule qualification. Oldenburg has already announced the introduction of a voluntary tenth school year at regional schools from the 2023/24 school year.
In addition, the work of student companies should be strengthened in order to arouse and develop economic interest. Their number had shrunk significantly after the state stopped funding years ago.
After the meeting of the 40-strong expert advisory board, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s employer president Lars Schwarz expressed his disappointment at the steps announced by the state government. Implementation in 2023 is a long way away. “We have campaigned for the Advisory Board to develop concrete and binding measures based on the existing concepts and suggestions from practice in the first quarter of 2023 and for the state government to implement them with the support of the social partners,” says Schwarz. “Economics Minister Reinhard Meyer and his State Secretary Jochen Schulte could not be persuaded to do so.”
DGB-Nord Vice Ingo Schlueter also sees employers as having a duty. “In view of the demand for young people and skilled workers that is visible everywhere, it is first and foremost the employer’s task to be or become competitive with attractive collective wages and working conditions,” he said. “We are always ready for collective bargaining.”
