Originally Published EMDM March/April 2005
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
German Engineering: Trouble in Paradise
You probably remember that old joke about the common market version of Heaven and Hell. Heaven is where the police are English, the cooks are French, the engineers are German, the lovers are Italian, and everything is organized by the Swiss. In Hell, the police are German, the cooks are English, the engineers are French, the lovers are Swiss, and everything is organized by the Italians. Well, it might be time to send that gag to the rewrite desk. Apparently, Germany’s storied engineering tradition faces a dim future.
A dispatch from Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News in London recently bemoaned that the “engineer is becoming an endangered species in Germany.” Before dismissing this as a sorry display of British schadenfreude, bear in mind that the writer’s source is the German engineering association VDI. According to a VDI spokesperson, Germany has a smaller percentage of its student population enrolled in engineering programmes than most other EU countries. And those that do graduate are insufficiently prepared for the workplace. VDI estimates that Germany is about 15,000 engineers shy of industry needs.
One of the roots of the shortage is dwindling interest among young people in engineering careers. The academic regimen is rigorous, and the potential rewards do not always measure up to the challenge. As little as five years ago, notes one observer, some of Germany’s top engineering schools were able to fill only about 30% of their seats. The shortage of skilled labour could hurt car production, heavy machinery, and electronics, which account for as much as 25% of Germany’s GDP. That led me to wonder if medical technology companies in Germany were also feeling the pinch. I posed the question to some EMDM readers. The vast majority agreed with the general prognosis.
“There is indeed an overall shortage of engineers in Germany,” says Franz Waldeck, managing partner at Tracoe Medical GmbH ( Nieder-Olm). Waldeck speaks from experience when he says, “Well-trained, skilled personnel that the medical technology industry needs are hard to find.”
Wolfgang Stehle, head of human resources at Medical Solutions, Siemens AG (München), concurs. “There is a shortage, especially in the classical fields such as mechanical and electrical engineering,” he says. This situation will intensify over the next few years, he adds, “as the number of projected graduates lags behind forecasted job opportunities.” Stehle notes, however, that the impact on the nation’s med-tech industry has been negligible thus far.
“The medical industry is more attractive for graduates than traditional industries. But it is foreseeable that competition for engineering talent will intensify in the years ahead,” he adds. In particular, industry struggles to find engineers with a combination of skills in engineering, medical technology, and clinical disciplines. “That’s why a number of large German med-tech companies are currently organizing employee recruitment fairs to attract talent with this convergence of skills,” says Stehle.
For Dr.-Ing. Stephan Miller, there is no question that Germany is experiencing a brain drain. Managing director and a partner at Dekema Dental-Keramikoefen GmbH in Freilassing, Miller recounts that he recently spent half a year searching for a qualified engineer. “Despite our high jobless rate, I found only two candidates through the unemployment office. Both were inadequate,” he says. “Well-educated engineers are emigrating to The Netherlands, Austria, Great Britain, and Switzerland, where conditions are more favourable.”
Being an engineer, Miller is not content to simply identify a problem. He also has suggestions for a solution.
A good start, says Miller, would be to start thinking positively. “We need to create a positive economic outlook. Engineers must realize that work still pays off in Germany. We have to regain our self-confidence.”
To turn the tide, Stehle recommends introducing a bachelor’s and master’s degree model to the German education system. Classical engineering studies should be “rebranded as future-oriented and hip, rather than difficult and old fashioned,” he suggests. And specialized talent from other countries should be actively recruited, Stehle argues.
I say, do whatever it takes. The country that gave us the luer lock, contact lens, and x-ray technology—to name only medical innovations—must reclaim its place in the engineering pantheon. Otherwise, we’re all going to Hell.
Copyright ©2005 European Medical Device Manufacturer
