On 14 May 2024, the STFI hosted the second Akademie Breakfast, an open industry exchange on the topics of recruiting and qualifying skilled workers. The STFI Akademie Breakfast once again brought together textile entrepreneurs, both the Employment Agency and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce as well as trainers from the STFI Akademie at a lavishly laid breakfast table. 45 participants accepted the invitation to Chemnitz.

The shortage of skilled labour is a challenge for our society. Like other branches of industry, the textile sector must take appropriate measures to maintain its performance. Norafin Industries (Germany) GmbH from Mildenau in the Ore Mountains presented its approach to recruiting young talent and integrating them into the company as sustainably as possible in a best-practice presentation.

As it is well known that school leavers alone cannot fully meet demand, a second approach is aimed at qualifying career changers. Against this backdrop, the Chemnitz Employment Agency provided information on the one hand about legal changes in further training funding for employees from April 2024 and on the other hand about funding opportunities for the qualification of career changers. Career reorientation for employees is very much in the spirit of lifelong learning. For this reason, the Federal Employment Agency also presented its portfolio of career counselling services for working life.

The open discussion among industry representatives revealed that the question of how specialised knowledge can be imparted to foreign workers is also of great interest. The topic of knowledge documentation and preservation during generational change was also discussed. The subsequent tours of the STFI's technical centres and laboratories also attracted a great deal of interest.

What is the conclusion after the second academy breakfast? In addition to the optimisation of further training funding for employees, the qualification allowance has supplemented the options for employees in the event of structural change-related needs since April 2024. The STFI is about to be approved as an AZAV-accredited training provider and is now starting the certification of individual training measures. This means that the textile industry has the prospect of an offer for the qualification of lateral entrants that includes funding for both employees and employers. Nevertheless, there are still many questions regarding the implementation of qualification programmes for career changers, for which practicable solutions are needed. We therefore believe that a continuous dialogue within the industry is essential. A new edition of the academy breakfast is therefore coming into focus. The date will be announced in due course.

We would like to thank all the speakers for their exciting contributions. Special thanks go to our guests Ines Damm from the Chemnitz Chamber of Industry and Commerce for her moderation, Tania Wree and Sascha Ißleib from the Chemnitz Employment Agency and Axel Vater from Norafin Industries (Germany) GmbH for their extensive contributions and input.