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Because there are a lack of educators, there are too few daycare places. This will increase the shortage of skilled workers in the future. Can the “silver skilled worker reserve” help?
Berlin – There is a shortage of around 400,000 daycare places across Germany. One of the reasons for this is that educators are rare. The shortage of skilled workers is hitting childcare and early education hard. According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, Germany would need around 300,000 additional skilled workers for a child-friendly educational formula. Without this, a vicious circle develops.
Daycare crisis in Germany: legally guaranteed care often doesn’t work
If there is a lack of employees and therefore daycare places, parents – mostly women – have to stay at home more often and can work less. The already large shortage of skilled workers in Germany is being exacerbated across all sectors because there is a lack of employees, particularly in education. In addition, children and their education suffer from the labor shortage. For Ekin Deligöz (Greens), State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, this is an unacceptable situation.
“We have to address the shortage of skilled workers in daycare centers, schools and child protection holistically and to do this we have to look at all options, from training and further education to good working conditions and immigration,” says Deligöz IPPEN.MEDIA to the daycare crisis. “This is the only way we can improve the situation for the skilled workers, who are already often working at their limits, and break the vicious circle of overwork and staff shortages.”
It’s not just in daycare centers that skilled workers are lacking – can older people help?
The State Secretary for Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) is in favor of an overall strategy for recruiting skilled workers in which the federal government, states and employers should work together. “Good education and participation for children are essential – instead of questioning the expansion of daycare places, the legal right to all-day care for primary school children or improvements in the quality of care, we must concentrate together on closing the skills gap in daycare centers and all-day care,” says Deligöz, which describes the recruitment of skilled workers as “one of the most pressing challenges of our present and future”.
In addition to better training for young people and more targeted immigration, as the Greens are calling for, political competitors are setting other priorities to cushion the shortage of skilled workers. Holger Ludwig, federal chairman of the CDU Senior Citizens’ Union, says many older people would like to work longer – as long as the conditions are right. “Working in old age must be particularly worthwhile. Anyone who wants to continue working after retirement should be able to work as much as they want – but tax-free,” says Ludwig opposite IPPEN.MEDIA. In the past, the CDU General Secretary has also repeatedly advocated better support for the “sleeping silver reserve of skilled workers”.
CDU politician criticizes traffic lights and calls for a “new government”
Linnemann’s party colleague Ralph Brinkhaus, member of the Bundestag for the Christian Democrats and former parliamentary group leader, is much more critical. He advocates raising the workforce potential in Germany and addresses the traffic light coalition directly: “The regulations on Citizen’s money, retirement, too high taxes and social security contributions create too many false incentives. Unfortunately, the traffic light policy has accelerated this undesirable development. A new government must ensure that performance and work are even more worthwhile,” Brinkhaus told our editorial team.
The left also wants to increase labor potential in the form of women who currently work part-time and give them easier access to the labor market in the future. “If you want to do something about the shortage of skilled workers, you have to create daycare and after-school places,” says Ateş Gürpinar, member of the Bundestag and deputy federal chairman of the Left.
Shortage of skilled workers: “Job centers should not be places of harassment”
“Another problem is our schools, which release tens of thousands of young people every year without a qualification. In Germany there are almost two million people between the ages of 20 and 34 without a formal professional qualification,” said the left-wing politician. The party is calling for more targeted training offers. “Job centers should not be places of harassment, but rather provide active help in choosing the right career and training. Against this background, it is completely incomprehensible that the federal government has drastically cut funding for further training for the unemployed.”
All politicians agree that something has to be done about the daycare crisis. However, everyone is aware that solutions cannot be implemented quickly or cheaply. Because one thing is clear: without major investments in new workers, the vicious circle in German training cannot be broken.
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