State Secretary Heitzer presents project "KMU-MINT" results

The State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), Dr Bernhard Heitzer, presented the results of the "KMU-MINT" project in Berlin.

In the context of this project, the BMWi commissioned the Cologne Institute for Economic Research and the RKW Competence Centre to analyse the state of affairs regarding skilled labour and recruitment problems in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) over a period of three years and to develop options for action for their human resources policy.

State Secretary Dr Heitzer, "with this project we support the German enterprises in a targeted manner in safeguarding their demand for skilled labour in the so-called MINT professions (Mathematics, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Technology) and thus help them to maintain their ground in the international competitive market. We thus invest in the future in particular of the small and medium-sized businesses and their employees, who face very special challenges in light of the demographic development. We also encourage small and medium-sized businesses to use the instruments that now are provided and to thus professionalise their human resources policy. With these instruments, SMBs can significantly increase both their success as a company and the job satisfaction of their employees."

Meanwhile, the measures put at the businesses' disposal by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research and the RKW Competence Centre were successfully tested at pilot companies located throughout Germany. During this test phase the measures already proved their worth by contributing to increased hiring of skilled workers and apprentices.

For instance, the "University Cooperation" instrument enabled an enterprise to further develop its contacts to universities to the degree of it now being represented on the university campus with its very own development department, where it can advertise itself by offering internships and the mentoring of final papers and establishes intensive contacts with university chairs with the aim of accompanying also the teaching activities themselves by way of practical exercises.

With success: Several employees already have been won over, who have taken up work in the enterprise in the context of a dual study course.