Press Release No. 50/2016 IT Summit: IG Metall Calls for Preventive and Needs-Based Training

Saarbrücken – IG Metall is urging the development of comprehensive training and continuing education programs within companies to prepare all employee groups for work in the digital workplace. “Skills development is an issue that concerns both companies and employees alike. The workplace must become a place of learning for everyone,” said Jörg Hofmann, President of IG Metall, on Thursday at the National IT Summit in Saarbrücken. Preventive and needs-based training is the best way to secure employment amid the technological transformation. That is why learning, education, and continuing education must be linked to an individual legal entitlement for all employees throughout their working lives. “We need a cultural shift so that the right to continuing vocational training becomes a matter of course as a public good. This includes opening vocational schools and universities to continuing education programs, as well as providing financial support for individuals pursuing a second degree.”

Companies must now address the challenge of how to promote learning in the workplace and thereby enable all employees to access new knowledge, Hofmann said during a panel discussion with representatives from politics and business at the IT Summit. “Workplace co-determination is the key lever for making up-to-date training programs a reality. However, this requires greater co-determination rights for works councils in the form of a right of initiative so that they can demand continuing education opportunities,” Hofmann said. “Industry 4.0 can be a win-win for all sides if it is accompanied and supported by a transformed corporate, leadership, and work culture. This, in turn, requires active co-determination and employee participation within companies.”

The IG Metall chairman regarded the recommendations for action from the “Work, Training, and Continuing Education” working group of the Industry 4.0 Platform—which is composed of works council members, company representatives, and association representatives and is led by IG Metall—as an important step in the right direction. The working group recommends enabling flexible and continuous continuing education, integrating different areas of education, and making greater use of test sites and centers of excellence for skills development than has been the case to date.