The flight that took Fredy Molano to another world lasted eleven hours. What the Colombian initially found in Germany: cool temperatures and cool temperaments, more than 9,000 kilometers from home. The 35-year-old spent two nights in a hotel in Hanover and is now on his way to Berlin: Molano wants to build a new life there as an electrician for the Vonovia housing group. What does he look forward to outside of his professional life? “Going to Champions League football games,” he says.
Daring to venture out into the world, that applies not only to Molano, but also to a certain extent to Vonovia. “Demographic change is affecting all of Europe. In this respect, you have to look a little further if you still want to find skilled workers,” said Konstantina Kanellopoulos on Monday at an event in Hanover, representing Rolf Buch, CEO of Vonovia. Kanellopoulos, as chief representative, presented the special recruitment program that the company had implemented: 17 skilled workers were recruited from Colombia, electricians and gardeners.
There are 250,000 jobs missing in the trades – in the future there will probably be even more
The measure was made possible by the Skilled Immigration Act, which came into force in 2020. It is intended to speed up the recognition of existing foreign professional qualifications and give immigrant specialists up to two years to acquire missing partial qualifications. When a large company like Vonovia has to look for staff in South America, it becomes clear how delicate the situation on the labor market is. There is already a huge shortage of skilled workers, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts estimates the current shortage at 250,000 vacancies. “If we generate electricity with the expansion of photovoltaics and heat pumps, we will need even more staff than today,” said Kanellopoulos. Fredy Molano is very interested in renewable energies, but in his home country the job market is highly competitive and often has uncertain, very short-term contracts. The payment is bad.
Everything changed for him when he saw a Vonovia ad on the internet. The Federal Employment Agency and the Colombian employment service had previously signed an agreement to work together, then a social media campaign was launched in the summer of 2021. Why are you looking in Colombia of all places? The training there covers many points with the German, analyzed the employment agencies, the gaps are relatively small. Over 400 applications were received, 90 job interviews were conducted via video. Then 21 people were selected who attended a six-month language course on site. Four people failed the exam: For them, the job in Germany didn’t work out after all.
Molano and the others are now getting more courses, in German and specialist training. If their qualifications are fully recognized by the authorities after two years at the latest, permanent residence should also be possible. “We want to bind people to us,” says Kanellopoulos, which is why permanent contracts are planned. The 17 specialists are distributed between Berlin, Lübeck, Hanover and Kiel. Molano can move into an apartment in the capital, which he, like the others, gets from the company, furniture is already in there. The only problem: In order to be able to watch Champions League football, he has to leave Berlin.