Romanian school graduates find traineeships in rural Germany with EURES

One beneficiary was Józsi Kotroczo, who now works for Elektro Müller, an electrical engineering firm based in the town of Soldau. Józsi has Hungarian and Romanian citizenship, but had lived in Romania for many years before moving to Germany. He was studying for his school leaving exams when he met Marianne Perrin, EURES Adviser at the German Federal Employment Agency’s International Placement Services (ZAV). Marianne visited his school in the town of Ineu, close to Arad, to present opportunities to live, learn and work in Heidekreis. With support from the EURES Targeted Mobility Scheme, the regional Public Employment Service and the local Welcome Centre, Marianne’s team then invited four prospective trainees to visit Heidekreis, meet employers, and imagine themselves living there.

Helping local employers tackle skills mismatches

One of the employers was Patrick Müller, Elektro Müller’s owner. “Nowadays it is very difficult to get young people interested in the [electrical engineering] craft”, Patrick says. “Many school graduates want to do an apprenticeship or study in the commercial field. That's why we as a company are very happy when people from abroad want to start an apprenticeship with us here in Heidekreis,” he explains. “Rural areas often offer very good jobs and living conditions (value for money, infrastructure for families, etc.) but candidates tend to prefer the big cities,” Marianne adds. “We have a severe mismatch here and wanted to face it by clearly explaining and marketing the advantages of living and working in rural areas.”

Overcoming challenges – linguistic and pandemic related

As vocational training involves school-based learning, the trainees needed advanced German-language skills. This initially made it challenging to find employers. However, the ambitious students were willing to take language courses and Marianne found three businesses – including Elektro Müller – who offered them traineeships, including a long preparation period to improve their German.

Soon after their arrival, the COVID-19 pandemic brought more difficulties. The young trainees could not leave their new homes and had to do their language courses online. Seeing a risk they might return home, Marianne worked with the employers, the Welcome Centre and language school to support and motivate them. “For me, this was a good example that EURES is not only a wonderful pan-European network that offers many opportunities, but that EURES also opens the doors to further networks – local ones specialised in really helping on location,” she says.

Settling in well

Józsi has overcome these challenges and settled well into life in Germany. “I like life in Heidekreis very much. The people here are friendly and helpful,” he says. Coming from a relatively similar, rural region of Romania, he has enjoyed pursuing his usual hobbies, such as football and running, in a comfortable environment. “I really like that my home is close to my workplace and I can do almost everything without a car,” Józsi adds.

Reflecting on his experience, Józsi is quick to acknowledge the support he has received. “After we moved, the Welcome Centre organised apartments for us and helped us with formalities such as registration, doctor’s appointments, shopping, looking for an apartment, furniture, mobile phone contracts, bank accounts, etc. That was a great help,” he reflects. “The financial support from EURES made it possible for me to finance my move to Germany,” Józsi adds. “Without this jump-start, I probably wouldn't be here.”

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