In Namibia, the IHK is supporting the establishment of a training center. The social enterprise wants to train young people in technical professions.
If you want to make a career as an entrepreneur, practice makes perfect. Sebastian Stietzel was just 14 when he first became “entrepreneurially active”. At 16, the President of the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce already had his first company – Computerservice Neustrelitz. “I’m probably one of the few founders who was even happy to receive his first letter from the tax office,” recalls the IHK President with a smile.
“As one does in Germany”, he decided to study industrial engineering and business administration at the Technical University of Berlin after graduating from high school. This obviously did him no harm. Today, in addition to his role as president, the business graduate is managing partner of Marktflagge GmbH, a company that helps SMEs to strategically realign themselves, reorganize or go public.
As IHK President, Stietzel wants nothing less than to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers in the capital. To this end, he attended the German-African Business Summit in the Kenyan capital Nairobi at the beginning of December together with Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), where he also visited the “Toolkit” training center. The social enterprise aims to train young people in technical professions, for example in the construction industry, and to bring
into contact with companies. For Stietzel, this is an example of best practice, as he also wants to train skilled workers in Africa – but for the
Berlin labor market. That is why he then traveled to Berlin’s twin city Windhoek in Namibia.
In February 2024, the idea of setting up a training center there was born – initiated by the IHK Berlin. “We want to help ensure that training in Namibia meets German standards,” says Stietzel. There is great interest in cooperation in the training sector in Namibia. Stietzel’s plan is for the participants in the pilot project to acquire their vocational qualifications in Namibia, primarily in the professions in which Berlin’s demand for skilled workers is highest – for example in the hospitality industry or in the business services sector. Participants will also learn German and be introduced to German culture. The aim is to make it easier for them to enter the German labor market. Stietzel already has plans to expand the project if the cooperation with Namibia works well. With other partner cities, but also within Africa. According to the IHK Skilled Labor Monitor, there is currently a shortage of 90,000 skilled workers in Berlin, and the trend is rising
. The model project should therefore be launched quickly, with a possible start in early 2026, says Stietzel.
Meanwhile, the IHK President is critical of the Berlin Senate’s plan to possibly introduce a training le vy in 2026 – if companies do not create 2,000 additional apprenticeships compared to 2023: “It pains me that we are currently discussing something like a training levy in Berlin state politics.” Instead, in his opinion, the focus
should be on filling the “currently more than 12,000 vacant apprenticeship places in Berlin and getting the young people who are still unplaced into training.”
According to a survey by the Institute for Employment Research, not even one in five companies in the capital offers apprenticeships – which is low compared to the rest of Germany
. A levy for all companies, regardless of whether they train or not, would
not improve anything in Stietzel’s eyes. On the contrary, he speaks of a “penalty fee” and fears a “bureaucratic monster”.
Instead, Stietzel would like to see greater focus on career guidance. He finds the IHK’s “training ambassadors” helpful – trainees who describe their path into training to school classes and present daily tasks and career options. Or internship weeks, where young people can get to know “several
companies in a very short space of time” through one-day internships.
“Many pupils have a very limited view of the various job profiles,” says Stietzel. He expressly supports the 11th year of compulsory schooling planned by Berlin’s Senator for Education Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) – for young people who do not have an apprenticeship or secondary school place after the 10th grade.
In order to make training more attractive, says
Stietzel, the “training system as a whole” needs to change. The IHK Berlin has just commissioned a scientific study for this purpose. The study aims to answer the question of how the training system can be further developed for the future
– experts, companies and trainees will be surveyed for this purpose. Stietzel’s forecast: “We will probably
have to rethink the structure of training,
in order to make it faster and more flexible.”
6.03.2025
