A specialists recruited by the Global Experts Team of TÜV Rheinland

Specialists recruited worldwide by TÜV Rheinland

The international recruitment of specialists developed by TÜV Rheinland Academy at the end of 2019, is flourishing magnificently. Alongside Hyundai, Viasona, a 100 percent Mercedes subsidiary, has now joined the project. The first automotive mechatronics technicians were placed at Mercedes. Talks are underway with the first BMW pilot dealers about strategic cooperation in Germany and Great Britain to provide skilled workers. Currently, some 220 Indian automotive mechatronics engineers and 55 mechatronics technicians are studying at TÜV Rheinland Academy NIFE India to complete their B1 level language training in a few months. Some of them are still receiving post-qualification in areas of work that differ from the content taught in Germany. With the support of TÜV Rheinland Global Experts, they are preparing to start working in the workshops of Hyundai, Mercedes and some multi-brand dealerships from April. Before they can enter Germany, however, there are still many bureaucratic hurdles to be overcome. The effort with the local and the candidates’ local authorities is enormous, but TÜV Rheinland Academy has found a good solution to speed up the processes.

New processes for professional recognition create a competitive advantage

The team is currently working together with the Cologne Chamber of Trade on the recognition of the candidates’ professional qualifications. For specialists like a mechatronic engineer, up to 30 documents have to be translated and certified. TÜV Rheinland Academy hired state-approved and sworn translators for this purpose. In addition, the curricula of the individual courses of study have to be translated, and it has to be determined whether they correspond to the study achievements of comparable German degrees. Because this proof and the documentation of comparability with German reference professions in the BQ-Portal is the only way to create the conditions for recognition of the specialists by a chamber of trade or chamber of commerce. The BQ-Portal is a German information portal for foreign professional qualifications. The portal helps employers to classify the qualifications of their applicants from abroad. Overall, this process can take between two and three months for each individual candidate. TÜV Rheinland Academy is currently in the process of reducing this recognition process to one month.

Immigration of specialists will speed up Visa procedures

The recognition then forms the basis for the visa issued by the German Embassy in India, which in turn can take up to three months. However, this could also accelerate in the future. On the one hand, the German Skilled Immigration Act, which has been in force since March 2020, will bring some relief. On the other hand, during her visit to India, Chancellor Angela Merkel held out the prospect that in the future the Chamber of Foreign Trade, with which the Global Experts Team is in close contact, will provide even more intensive support to German employers in recruiting specialists and skilled workers.

At Hyundai, the first five mechatronics technicians will start in April 2020 in dealer workshops. And together with the head office, they will be scaling up to the Hyundai dealer network from the beginning of 2020. The Mercedes dealer chain Schloz Wöllenstein GmbH & Co. KG in Chemnitz will also start in spring with four skilled workers, and  Mercedes-Benz in Bremen with three skilled workers. At Viasona, a subsidiary of Schloz Wöllenstein, which provides personnel services for the automotive trade, 200 to 250 automotive mechatronics technicians will be placed with Mercedes each year. In the meantime, four to five BMW dealers who are interested in Indian mechatronics engineers contact TÜV Rheinland Academy every month. The TÜV Rheinland Academy Training Center in Chemnitz is responsible for language training in India. The Chemnitz colleagues are also preparing the integration of the candidates; a model project that will be expanded nationwide.

The employers are also already making a great deal of effort to give the new Indian specialists a warm welcome. For example, a workshop team from Schloz Wöllenstein had T-shirts with the Mercedes logo and the names of their four new colleagues printed and sent to India. The Chemnitz and Indian colleagues already got to know each other in a virtual conference. And as a thank you for the warm welcome from Chemnitz, the mechatronics engineers shot a video in India to show how they signed their employment contracts in a ceremony in the presence of their families. This, in turn, inspired the Schloz Wöllensteiner to shoot a video with a tour of the workshop for the Indians so that they can get used to their new workplaces. Both sides are longingly expecting each other. This shows once again that cordiality, common values, and goals, overcome boundaries in every way.

Contact: Thomas.Bastian@de.tuv.com 

competence management tüv rheinland academy

Thomas Bastian