Germanys New Export: Jobs Training - Assignment Example

Case 7 - Germany’s New Export: Jobs Training Executive Summary Germany’s New Export: Jobs Training With the unemployment rate in America still hovering near 10%, it is easy to forget that many industries are actually suffering from a prolonged labor shortage. Not all jobs are created equal, and not every worker is qualified for every available position. While America has long been considered a manufacturing powerhouse, they have lost some ground recently to their European and Japanese counterparts who are incorporating high degrees of technology in their manufacturing processes.

Germany itself has been seems as a leader in many robotics and skilled technician positions, and it has shown in their increased productivity and profitability. These jobs, however, are left unfilled in America because there are simply not enough workers available to fill them. Estimates are that 600,000 highly skilled manufacturing jobs remain open across the United States, in spite of the high unemployment rate (Fuhrmans, 2012). Naturally, it would benefit society to get these individuals back to work, but it would also benefit manufacturing companies if they could find a way to train people and fill these positions as well.

That is where Germany has entered in. In recent years, America has grown increasingly receptive to having German companies train and provide apprenticeships to American workers in an effort to improve their own manufacturing processes. This has become important as the country takes steps to move beyond the recent economic crisis and get individuals back to work. Job training is proving itself important in the new global economy. It has also been shown to be beneficial to create cooperative programs between local government and industry professionals in order to train new workers in the industrial sector.

Critique Germany’s New Export: Jobs Training The days are gone when American executives can refuse to learn from other countries and their way of implementing job training programs. While the country remains the strongest and productive economy in the world, other nations have quickly caught up to, and in some respects passed, America in terms of manufacturing process. As such, it is important that leaders in industry in the United States be willing to learn from companies in other countries and, in many cases, implement their strategies and methodologies.

Germany is one such example, but there are others as well. Japan and America, for example, have long been considered similar in their drive for perfection and profitability. There are quite a few Japanese factories in America now, and we have long been learning for the leadership and management style. Germany now has entered the scene in terms of providing highly skilled workers, training in the utilization of modern technological equipment, allowing them to increase their productivity and output many fold.

Owing to this reality, it is certainly plausible to see the need for American companies to reach out and accept the support of other companies in this increasingly global and economically connected community that we find ourself in today. This issue becomes particularly important given the reality that the unemployment remains so high in America. With so many open positions in the manufacturing, many of them well paying jobs, the country needs to be doing a better job of retraining individuals in the use of technology, providing a highly skill workforce in the future.

To do this, they need the ingenuity of other companies where such systems and methodologies are already in place, and German companies certainly appear to fit the bill. In addition, it is important to shift the mindset of young people that factory work is beneath them. The reality is that many jobs in this sector require highly skilled, trained and experienced people, and they are well compensated for that. In the end, however, our culture has moved people away from industry in recent years, causing this recent gap in the labor force that certainly needs to be corrected moving forward.

Many German companies use the apprentice system of training new works, and it has been paying dividends. Fuhrmans (2012) states that, “In Germany, nearly two-thirds of the country’s workers are trained through partnerships among companies, technical schools and trade guilds. Last Year, German companies took on and trained nearly 600,000 paid apprentices” (p. 1). While this concept is certainly not new, it has fully been utilized in the United States. Apprentices learn on the job, providing valuable skills to the company right away, while affording them the opportunity to perfect their trade from current experts in the field.

This type of on-the-job training is invaluable and is certainly an avenue that American manufacturing companies should purse moving forward. References Fuhrmans, V. (2012). Germany’s new export: Jobs training. The Wall Street Journal, (14 June 2012), 1-3.