Germany turns to foreign specialists to fill posts in IT

by David Kelleher

A lack of qualified personnel in Information technology and informatics has forced the German government to look outside its borders for human resources, including Malta.

With the number of IT related posts increasing exponentially every year, a number of European countries are finding it extremely difficult to meet the immediate demand for suitably qualified resources.

According to statistics the number of jobs being created annually is in excess of 600,000, however the number of personnel is not enough to fill these posts. In Germany alone there are 75,000 vacancies for skilled IT personnel.

Most countries in Europe and even the US have been trying to attract highly skilled tech people from India and other Asian countries to solve the problem. Although training schemes have been introduced to train people in IT, the results are expected in the medium- to long- term rather than in the short-term.

The German embassy last week issued a press release highlighting the problem and called on anyone interested in taking up a position with a German IT company.

Contacted by The Malta Business Weekly, a spokesperson for the

German Embassy in Malta said that they had only received five or six inquiries from Maltese persons, although two had already taken up offers and moved to Germany.

In order to satisfy short-term needs, the German government is offering top-level IT specialists (with a university or polytechnic degrees) the opportunity to work regularly in Germany for up to a period of five years. Working and salary conditions will be the same for foreign specialists as for Germans.

To support this process, visa and work permits for IT specialists are being streamlined and responsibility for the placement of IT personnel is in the hands of the Federal Employment Agency (Arbeitsamt). However, German companies are also allowed to track down IT specialists according to their needs.

An Internet hotline for specialised IT personnel has been set up and more detailed information may be obtained from the website www.arbeitsamt.de.

The Agency can also be contacted by email at

bonn-zav.it-experts@arbeitsamt.de.