Evening Event with Rüdiger Grube and NIT Industrial Advisory Board Meeting
- pictures: Claudia Höhne
17.11.2011
At present a shortage of engineers in Germany has led to over 40,000 job vacancies, and the number is on the increase. On the evening of November 9, representatives of the NIT and various Hamburg companies and universities discussed with Deutsche Bahn AG CEO Dr. Rüdiger Grube the shortage of young professionals in the MINT subjects (mathematics, informatics, science, and engineering).
Although many funding programs are available for students, including initiatives and projects launched by companies, foundations, and universities, such as the NaT Initiative and, indeed, the NIT, the main problem was that many school students in particular couldn’t see why they should learn physics, mathematics, or chemistry, Dr. Lothar Dittmer, a Körber Foundation Board member, said.
Dr. Grube confirmed that as Deutsche Bahn AG sees it a shortage of both skilled employees and apprentices already exists. He referred in his address to a new corporate “recruitment organization” to secure the services of new employees. At present, he said, it was mainly a matter of investing in the company’s image, which was of crucial importance in the skilled worker’s choice of employer. It was also important to promote employees at the workplace and offer them personal prospects within the company.
- pictures: Claudia Höhne
In the debate between Lothar Dittmer, Rüdiger Grube, and university and company representatives, the qualification of applications and the competences of companies as good employers were the central issues. An important point was to encourage young people who had not received enough encouragement at home yet had a great deal of potential. Role models also played a key part in motivation. Dr. Grube spoke from personal experience. By coincidence he was noticed by Mr. Blohm of Blohm + Voss who motivated him to study and provided him with financial support.
Soft skills, he said, held the key to career success for employees and management. Credibility, authenticity, respect, and passion were not to be learned in management seminars; they were mainly a result of experience gained in the course of a career. Schools ought also to gear their efforts to peak performers and not to the mediocre so as to improve qualifications in the MINT subjects and so, in the final analysis, to produce better school-leavers and graduates. If performance was not appreciated, he said, there would be no incentive to be a high flyer. “Why should an athlete bother to train if there are no gold medals to win? Performance must be rewarded.”
The semiannual meeting of the NIT’s Industrial Advisory Board was held before the meeting with Rüdiger Grube, who chaired the Board in its early years. At the Advisory Board meeting, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hermann Lödding of the TUHH presented his Institute of Production Management and Technology, while Dr. Schneider outlined the latest legal aspects of employing foreign nationals in Germany. At the ensuing wide-ranging presentation by NIT students and alumni from different classes it was readily apparent why Dr. Schneider’s lecture was of relevance for all companies with commitments at the NIT. Internationality—as was only to be expected—was an important aspect of the subsequent discussion on the NIT’s further development. The Industrial Advisory Board with its constructive commitment continues to be an important NIT body.