An independent outlook

People from many different countries work side-by-side in Martin Kohstall’s workshop: Togo, Sene­gal, Syria, France, Ghana, Croatia and Greece. The master joiner takes commissions for interior design and his team combines older, more experienced carpenters with young apprentices and assistants. One such is Abdulrahim Alshallah, who came to Munich from Syria in 2018. He trained as a carpenter in Syria, but there was no formal apprenticeship like there is in Germany. Martin Kohstall employed him even though he did not hold a formal qualification. "I need nice young people who want to work,” says the man from Munich. “Their nationality doesn’t matter to me. The world has always been a rich and varied place for me.”

Applicants for a job with Martin start by completing a period of work experience. “Their attitude to work is vital. Applicants must have the will to learn,” he stresses. “They also need to fit as a person.” He places less weight on German language skills. For the past 15 years he has regularly employed skilled workers from abroad, and around half of his 23 staff are from outside Germany. “They are the future of the skilled crafts and trades,” he says emphatically. “For years in Germany we've had a shortage among the next generation.” 

There’s a desperate need for workers across all the skilled crafts and trades, as Stefan Gustav from the Koblenz Chamber of Crafts explains. The shortage is affecting commercial and technical careers, food production, metalwork and construction. “I’m often on the phone with companies who have connections with a country and know people there who they want to bring to Germany,” Gustav says. He specialises in providing official recognition for foreign vocational qualifications. Currently he is supporting a local refrigeration firm which wants to employ a man living in Iraq as a mechatronics engineer for refrigeration technol­ogy. He will have to get his qualifications analysed when he arrives in Germany to assess whether he has adequate skills. 

The number of vacancies in the skilled crafts and trades in Germany has exceeded the number of unemployed craftsmen and women for several years. There is a particular shortage of skilled workers who already hold a vocational qualification or professional experience. The Chambers of Crafts advise businesses on how to handle applications and regulations. They provide support to both sides, as jobseekers can get tips on where to look for work. “We know which businesses are advertising and we can talk to them in a targeted way,” Gustav explains. “Ideally, we can bring the two sides together.” For skilled workers setting up independently can offer long-term prospects in Germany. “We have observed that many of the ethnic Germans who came here in the Nineties now run their own businesses,” Gustav says. “Many of the people who migrated here from Syria in 2015 have also now integrated very well into the employment market.”

According to analysis undertaken by the Institute for Employment Research, small firms appear particularly attractive to workers from abroad. They also employ more refugees, especially where the firm already has experience of working with foreign workers. They are also more likely to recruit new staff through their own existing employees and other personal contacts. Regional factors matter, too, as migrants are more likely to be employed in areas where the staff shortage is particularly acute. 

According to master carpenter Martin Kohstall, bureaucracy is not too much of an obstacle to taking on apprentices he from abroad. “New ar­rivals in Germany need a residence permit and if that needs extended, that’s just something you have to deal with yourself,” he explains. 

He doesn’t consider the examinations at vocational colleges to be too much of a barrier, either. Germany has a well-known system of two-track vocational training. Apprentices, known as “Azubis” for short, spend one or two days a week at a vocational college where they study the theoretical foundations of their trade. They can then put their new knowledge to use straight away in the workplace. The exams are of course more challenging for people who do not speak German as a first language. Even here, though, Martin Kohstall says a lot depends on how the college and lectures deal with the problem.

“The majority of international apprentices pass their exams,” says Kerstin Brandt, an advisor at the IHAFA integration project which offers training in the skilled crafts and trades for refugees and asylum seekers. Funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour, Health and Equality, the project places immigrants into apprentices for skilled crafts and trades and supports them until they have completed their training. “Being able to speak German is important,” Brandt emphasises. “It matters when talking to colleagues on the building site or in the workshop just as much as it does in the vocational college.” The IHAFA project’s work includes supporting apprentices whose language skills are not up to the demands of the workplace or examinations. Trainees can improve their language skills through tutoring programmes and vocational language courses which they take alongside their work.

Adel Hammamy managed to get his language skills up to scratch. Adel comes from Syria and had only lived in Germany for three years when Martin Kohstall took him on as an apprentice. “I read a lot and watched TV to try to learn the language better,” says the 35-year-old. He has now worked as an assistant joiner at the Munich-based firm for 16 years. The good mood that Hammamy brings to the workshop seems infectious. He says that you always work as a team in the skilled crafts and trades, and he like that. It’s also the best way to learn German. He’s happy that he stuck at his vocational training, which wasn’t always easy. “As a carpenter, you’ve always got a good future,” he says.