State-Level Deals and Campus Partnerships: Germany’s Creative Push to Fill 7 Million Missing Workers
Published on 07/05/2026 at 20:05 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
In the sweltering first days of July, a delegation from Germany's northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern sat down in Tashkent to sign a memorandum of understanding with Uzbekistan’s Agency for Labour Migration. Led by Economic State Secretary Jochen Schulte, the agreement aims to prepare Uzbek workers for the German job market through vocational training and language courses. It’s one piece of a much larger puzzle: Germany staring at a shortfall of around seven million workers by 2035, according to the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).
The economic wound is already open. The Institute of the German Economy (IW) calculates that lost production potential reached 49 billion euros in 2024. If left unchecked, that figure could climb to 74 billion euros by 2027.
The federal government defended its approach earlier this month in a reply to a parliamentary question. Starting in 2027, the “Bildungsketten” (education chains) initiative will enter a third phase. The government also pointed to the “Ausbildungsgarantie” — a training guarantee that bundles counselling and support for young people entering apprenticeships.
Asian partnerships are multiplying. On July 3, the Vietnam-Japan Cultural and Education Cooperation Promotion Center (VJCE) and a Japanese language school in Tokyo agreed to jointly train highly skilled professionals and foster academic exchanges. Back in the same region, a different model has taken root in Thailand. At Nguyen University, a 2,500-square-metre cooperation space launched on July 4, bringing together state bodies, university faculty and corporations. Tech giants such as Samsung, Foxconn, Viettel and VinFast use the space to train students directly.
The numbers tell a concrete story: Samsung’s innovation campus has already qualified nearly 400 students in artificial intelligence, big data and semiconductor technology. Foxconn recruited 200 junior staff directly from the university. On July 5, Nguyen University signed another deal with ADC Vietnam, aiming to build human-resources capacity in robotics and STEM fields between 2026 and 2031.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the hiring calculus of global tech firms. SAP is limiting new hires outside core AI roles and trimming business travel to reallocate funds toward cloud infrastructure and AI specialists. Amazon and Adobe are moving in similar directions. Yet new training models are emerging. Achieve Partners champions an “earn-and-learn” approach: apprentices work on real AI projects from day one to close the talent gap.
Counterintuitively, demand for hands-on making remains robust. Autodesk’s “AI Jobs Report 2026” found that 66 percent of people aged 14 to 23 are looking for careers that involve producing physical goods. Even so, the number of AI-related positions in design and manufacturing rose 32 percent.
A practical success story comes from Switzerland. Mobilezone, a telecom services company, reported that all 44 of its apprentices passed their exams in summer 2026. More than half were offered permanent jobs. Next year the company plans to open 46 new apprenticeship slots.
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