Vietnamese professionals, especially skilled workers in the sectors of science, technology and engineering who wish to work in Germany, will be helped to seek job opportunities in the country under a new programme titled "Make it in Germany".

Under the programme - which is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, qualified professionals will be offered locally-based support as they prepare for their move to Germany.

The support will be offered by Vietnamese advisors who have previously spent time studying or working in Germany. It also includes information events, individual support with job-hunting and the application procedure and tips on preparing for departure to Germany.

In Asia, this service is only available in two other countries - India and Indonesia.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, an engineer from Hanoi who has a master's degree in civil engineering, said he was currently learning German, hopefully to find a job in Germany through the initiative.

"The fact that Germany has eased its immigration rules to encourage more skilled professionals from abroad is a great opportunity for people who majored in scientific fields like me," said Anh.

He said the programme would create a win-win situation for both Germany, with its labour shortage, and Vietnamese skilled workers and possibly for Vietnam as a whole as well, as Vietnamese workers will gain experience and learn a lot of valuable lessons in Germany.

Featured in an introductory video on the "Make it in Germany" website, Tung, a software developer who comes from Vietnam and currently lives in Giessen, said that his education and expertise is very much appreciated there. "In my profession it is important to keep it rolling and to improve oneself. Germany is the perfect place for that," he said.

Dominik Ziller, head of the Directorate for Migration of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the three Asian countries - India, Indonesia and Vietnam - were chosen for the pilot programme as they have comparatively well-trained workers in relevant professions and extensive potential in humans resources.

These workers, according to Ziller, possess qualification profiles that are suitable for, or can quite easily be adapted to, the German labour market.

He pointed out that some universities and schools in Vietnam even offer courses following the German curricula, citing the Vietnamese-German University in Ho Chi Minh City or the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) as examples.

He added that there is a similar landscape of institutions in India and Indonesia.

Ziller also said the German government has had excellent co-operation with the Vietnamese Department of Overseas Labour, which had showed an open mind and interest in having Vietnamese professionals gaining qualifications abroad, in order to enjoy the manifold advantages that come along with living and working abroad.

He said the benefits would not only lie in the remittances that the Vietnamese diaspora would send back home – but also the possibility of technology transfer that will eventually benefit Vietnam.

Ziller said the "Make it in Germany" programme is an initiative to solve the problem of a drop in the number of available qualified professionals in Germany as a result of changing demographics.

"There is already a perceptible fall in the numbers of available qualified professionals in the "STEM" - science, technology, engineering, maths - sectors," Ziller said, adding that the problem will worsen and spread to other professions.

According to the programme's website, some sectors and regions in Germany are already lacking qualified professionals. It states that if nothing is done by 2025, demographic changes will have created a shortfall of more than 6 million workers in the country. Vietnamese professionals who are interested in seeking jobs in Germany could find helpful information through the "Make it in Germany" website.

The site shows professionals how to access Germany - from information about making a career and living there to the details about which sectors are in search of qualified professionals and what the terms and conditions are for taking up employment in the country.-VNA