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In the following I will concentrate on the job market for graduates in industry - I will give some examples from German industry - and mainly from multinational groups. First I will describe an example of a work process in an international company and then we will give our assessment of the demands on a future employee in a global working industrial company. I am going to concentrate on what kind of graduates industry is most interested in and what type of applicant would probably be one of the so called "high potentials". Finally I will draw three conclusions on how politics, universities, private foundations, the whole educational system and of course to which extent, if at all, individuals could prepare for the future development. I. The following is a description of a production process- for example the construction of a car - as we realize it today: Modern technical development is based on media, on information technology - but without doubt a lot of creative and mental work is required apart from and before using the media. After the so called ‚simultaneous engineering' we took a further step and came to the development of a virtual product. No part of the product is physically existing yet. But the virtual product allows everybody involved in the process of construction to simulate and to calculate long time before the product is actually visible. All kind of construction engineers, for the body, the chassis, the interior and also designers, suppliers, marketing experts and the customer service can work on the digital product at the same time. This method is not only reducing working time but also the costs of development and construction. And even more: it makes a 24-hour construction feasible. Offices in Melbourne, Detroit and Germany can work together. At the end of each working day the engineers place their results to the disposal of their colleagues at the other end of the world who continue working. In this way it is possible to use all capacities around the world, to shorten the time of development and to offer globally developed products to the global market. To attain this demanding goals some ideas had to be considered: the problems of communication had to be reduced to a minimum and the team-building process had to be practiced very carefully at one place in the world. Thus, also creative work can be done regarding the 24-hour construction. For example design studios in California, in Spain and in Germany are working together very effectively and are inspiring each other. This kind of cooperation needs - apart from a standardized hard ware and soft ware - the same basis of professional values, the same understanding of a problem, a similar approach, the same language and an intercultural teamwork. All successful sectors of industry - like communication and information industries or like pharmaceutical companies - are working on an international level and this tendency will grow in the near future. If there really should be a pressure for a special size of a company and the "World Inc." should be the type of company for the next century, more things will change in future. Traditional or family names of companies will be changed by synthetic names like Aventis or Novartis. Headquarters emigrate abroad, manager in provincial or rural areas have to formulate letters or e-mails in English - or another language - or in the worst case they have to justify themselves in video-conferences with their superiors in other continents. II. Following these ideas, what are the demands and challenges for graduates on the future job market? There is nothing new telling you that human resources departments are looking for candidates with a broad know how that goes together with a deep expert knowledge in one special subject. They should have experience in foreign countries and a general base of IT-skills. For example the German automobile industry - including DaimlerChrysler - published some data about future newcomers to this sector. This year and next year there is a need for about 4200 engineers in seven companies. The people most asked for by all companies are graduates or young professionals. Admittedly they are making higher demands on the candidates for the next century: Also engineers should know foreign languages - which knowledge they achieved during internships abroad, and they should be able to present themselves and their product in a convincing manner. If we keep on looking at the automobile industry also office staff, marketing experts etc. find a sphere of activity in this sector, not to forget lawyers and financial advisors: think of the mergers, of new contracts, of new administrative regulations on the European level or in the global perspective. There is a need for about 1750 businessmen or -women and other experts. But let's have a look at the other side of the coin. The demands of professionals and their ideas of their career have changed as well. Thus employers bring the selection of valuable candidates much more into focus than before. No surprise, when innovation, creativity and social competencies become essential subjects for future economical success, the ability to innovate will be even more crucial in the ultra competitive worldwide marketplace of the future. And companies do focus on their candidates. In Germany, investments for human resources/recruiting are increasing by and large and new avenues to find the high potentials are tried out. Days of information, university fairs, internships, visits to the plants and online recruiting are the new standards to attract candidates to companies. There are two recent European studies which focus on the attractiveness of international employers. I don't want to talk about the ranking list. There are other results which appear much more interesting to me. One study is based on interviews with students just before their professional examinations and the other is a study concentrating on young professionals. Both researches are drawing the same conclusions on the ideas of the potential candidates: The great majority of the people interviewed is looking for challenging and varied tasks with a lot of responsibility and a wide scope for development. They want to set things in motion by themselves in an multicultural environment with professional visits abroad. Image, identity and identification seem to be factors contributing to the attractiveness of a certain position for the potential employee. It will be a challenge for both sides, for graduates and for companies, to get together and to find their right counterpart. III. At the end I would like to draw three general conclusions for the following discussion. I will give you two "Do'"-s and a " Do not" to remember. Do continue to bring people together! The exchange of people on many levels from various organizations should not give in to virtual contacts via Internet, it should be added by that medium. Personal contact in business, as well as political and social exchanges or a scientific research with one another will remain the nucleus for future mutual understanding. Let it be scientists, who are all global players, let it be top-managers, teachers or the international league of midwives. They all need real organizations, not digital ones. Secondly: Do make it easier to work or study abroad! More and more jobs in the future require international experience. It seems necessary not only to offer scholarships but also more internships or vacation jobs. There are still problems on either side: in Germany international degrees are hardly accepted. In the US the immigration regulations are a certain hindrance for volunteers, if you are not sent abroad by your company or another organization. As it is today, it seems hard work to globalize one's career. And thirdly a Do not: Do not standardize everything! There should be some essential basics in common, some formalities and a lot of common values. In future a lot of skills and ways to work have to be similar, but we also need specialists, experts and even some people who dare to imagine the unthinkable. Let them inspire each other and let them work together to attain the best results: A Danish designer will be different from a Californian one, a genetic scientist in Germany will approach a problem in a way different from a colleague in Philadelphia, and a British mathematician might work in another way than a Brazilian researcher. |