Chemnitz_zieht_an_Magazin_2024_englisch

CZA
CHEMNITZ ZIEHT
AN.!de
LIVING
NEIGHBOURHOOD
International specialists
in the Chemnitz economy
EIN PROJEKT VON
&

DEAR READERS,
Due to demographic change,
skilled workers are in short
supply in some sectors and
regions in Germany, and
jobs are not being filled. This
means that some projects
are not being realised or that
the bakery next door has to
close. The increasing shortage
of skilled labour is now
the biggest business risk for
companies. Every company
can tackle this development
by making the right
decisions in its HR policy
and taking the initiative to
harness previously untapped
potential for skilled labour.
Recruiting foreign skilled
workers not only meets the
need for trained personnel
– it also enriches every organisation.
Cultural diversity
makes a company more
attractive both internally and
externally – for example, by
strengthening its image as a
modern, open and internationally
oriented company.
What’s more, considering
foreign skilled workers widens
the pool of applicants
and increases the chance of
finding a suitable candidate.
Robert Czajkowski, Vorstandsmitglied im Verein
Wirtschaft für ein Weltoffenes Sachsen e.V.
2

The stories from Chemnitz companies in this
magazine all reveal one thing: if you are looking
to recruit skilled workers from abroad, you
also need to focus on integration and on fostering
a culture of welcome within your company.
Because foreign skilled workers will stay with
the company in the long term only if they settle
into their new environment – both professionally
and personally – and if they participate
in society. This may involve a certain amount
of effort, but it ultimately pays dividends and
will secure your company’s future. Successful
welcome and diversity management creates
an image of an open-minded organisation and
increases the attractiveness of your employer
brand. Establishing a welcoming culture signals
to international specialists that your company
values them and is happy to provide support.
This means that, if your preferred candidate receives
several job offers, they will choose you.
Our association, Wirtschaft für ein weltoffenes
Sachsen e.V., will be happy to advise you on
how you can practise diversity and openness to
other cultures in your company and integrate
skilled workers in the long term. We’re here to
help you!
Get involved in promoting
cultural diversity in Chemnitz,
living European values, and
strengthening a creative and
open urban society in an international
dialogue. It’s your
company, your city and your
federal state. A democracy is
not something you have, but
something you have to work
for. Let’s look in the mirror
and repeat John F. Kennedy’s
words: “Ask not what your
country can do for you – ask
what you can do for your
country.” Each and every individual
can and should help,
for example, by doing their
bit to make Chemnitz the
European Capital of Culture
a success. A just society, a
strong and resilient democracy,
sustainable prosperity – you
can shape the future! Make
your decision on many future
issues that will affect our lives
tomorrow by casting your vote
on 9 June 2024 in the 2024
European elections and on 1
September 2024 in the election
of the eighth Saxon State
Parliament!
3

ZEFAS
FIZU NDC
CWE
WHO SUPPORTS
INTEGRATION INTO THE
LABOUR MARKET?
Grafik: shutterstock
There can be no doubt that integrating employees
from abroad into a company involves a
certain amount of effort. But nobody should let
that stop them. After all, workers and specialists
from abroad not only help to fill vacancies,
but also contribute to a more diverse corporate
culture and can bring fresh impetus to the workplace.
Whether your company is recruiting or needs help dealing
with the authorities or looking for language courses,
employee workshops or integration measures, local and
regional points of contact provide services to make the
start easier for everyone involved:
4

ZEFAS – A GUIDE TO
SECURING SKILLED
LABOUR
ZEFAS, the Zentrum für Fachkräftesicherung
und Gute Arbeit Sachsen
(Centre for Securing Skilled Labour and
Good Work in and for Saxony), acts as a
guide to help companies find, retain and
develop employees. Its extensive range of
online information ensures a structured
introduction to this topic and provides a
practical overview. ZEFAS offers a wide
range of information and assistance,
particularly in the area of labour marketrelated
immigration. It provides concrete
support for companies by listing recruitment
service providers that have made
a commitment to the fair recruitment
of international specialists and workers.
Saxon companies can also actively participate
in projects, including the ZEFAS
project to promote the professional
integration of Kyrgyz trainees and skilled
workers and the Arbeitsmarktmentoren
Sachsen (Saxony Labour Market Mentor
Programme). This programme aims to
support people with a migration background
in successfully integrating into
the Saxon labour market.
www.zefas.sachsen.de
FIZU – A MEDIATOR FOR
EVERYONE INVOLVED
The increasing demand for skilled workers
from abroad can be seen, among other
things, in the number of companies that
have registered with the Fachinformationszentren
Zuwanderung (Immigration Information
Centres [FIZU]) in Saxony over the
past four years. In 2022, there were already
more than 400 at the Chemnitz contact
point alone – and that figure is rising. The
FIZU centres in Saxony are key points of
contact for all target groups in the area of
labour market immigration. The centres
aim to involve all stakeholders in the process
throughout Saxony in order to act successfully
on behalf of local people. The FIZU
centres in Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz
mediate between immigrants, employers
and staff of the Federal Employment Agency,
the Job Center and other authorities.
“Companies that take advantage of our advice
come from very different backgrounds.
We support them on their individual path
to integrating immigrants into their specific
labour market by putting them in touch with
all the necessary contacts and providing
the required documents,” says Antje Pfeifer.
In the case of skilled workers from abroad, it
is particularly important to compensate for
migrants’ lack of knowledge of the systems
in Germany. “Entering Germany is a very
bureaucratic process: everyday things that
we take for granted initially pose major
hurdles.”
Appointments for free advice can be made
by calling +49 (0)371 520 271 74 or emailing
apfeifer@welcomesaxony.de
www.welcomesaxony.de/fachinformationszentrum-zuwanderung/
NDC SAXONY –
PREPARING THROUGH
WORKSHOPS
Integration is a learning process. This
applies not only to the management of
a company, but to the entire workforce.
Foreign cultures, differences in communication
styles or different approaches
to work can prove to be a challenge.
Companies are therefore well advised
to inform their employees of their plans
for internationalisation at an early stage
and to offer training on the topic if necessary.
This is where the Netzwerk für
Demokratie und Courage (Network for
Democracy and Courage [NDC]) Saxony
comes in: “We work preventively, uncover
prejudices and stereotypes in workshops
and explain how the mechanisms
of discrimination work. We also advise
companies when integration poses
greater challenges than initially thought,”
explain Education and Network Officers
Sylke Fritzsche and Heiko Weigel. Their
aim is to see diversity in the workforce as
an opportunity rather than an obstacle.
“Everyone ultimately benefits from the
strategic inclusion of cultural diversity
in a company’s HR development.” This
point of contact, which is free of charge
for companies, is funded by the state
programme Weltoffenes Sachsen (Cosmopolitan
Saxony). More information is
available at: www.netzwerk-courage.de/
sachsen.
www.netzwerk-courage.de/sachsen
www.welcomesaxony.de/
fachinformationszentrumzuwanderung/
5

ARRIVING IN
TANDEM
THE START WITH A FRIEND ASSOCIATION
CREATES ENCOUNTERS AT EYE LEVEL
Quite a few shared kitchens turn into magical meeting
places over time. People cook, drink, chill, philosophize and
discuss together and sometimes an inspiring idea is born
that gives hope and makes the world a little more human.
The idea for “Start with a Friend”, a project that brings immigrants
and locals together as equals, was born in one such
shared kitchen in the middle of Berlin a good nine years ago.
To date, the idea has spread to 27 cities across Germany.
Chemnitz has been one of them since 2022.
Fotos: Thomas Höppner
It’s a rather rainy evening in Chemnitz
as the members and friends of the Start
with a Friend association meet for their
regular get-together. The atmosphere
is good, as is the pizza. There is a lot of
joking and everyone is visibly enjoying
being together. You wouldn’t know that
many of them have experienced the
unimaginable. It is only when they are
asked about the past that the sorrow
becomes evident on their faces. It soon
clicks that they prefer to live in the
here and now, to appreciate the security,
make plans and enjoy the new
perspectives. But not all guests with a
migration background have fled their
homeland at some point. Students from
other countries and locals also join the
group, which gets bigger and bigger as
the evening progresses. What we want
6

so much for the big picture is happening
here on a small scale – multicultural
coexistence with mutual respect. In the
middle of it all: Thomas Höppner, who
until a few years ago had hardly had any
contact with other cultures. Then came
the wave of refugees in 2015. “The media
images burned themselves into my
mind – especially the Syrian boy who
was washed up on the Turkish coast,”
he says. “That’s when it started rattling
around inside my head: we should...” Yes,
we should, but what? How can you help?
Donate money, perhaps. But where? And
will it get to where it is needed?
The film producer, who produces videos
for the Niners basketball team in
Chemnitz among other things, finally
met Muhammad Ahmad, also known as
Moe. The two got to know each other
in the “Unknown Baskets” recreational
team, met up at Niners fan events and
began spending more and more time
together. Start with a Friend also pursues
this goal – just with a little help to
get started. The non-profit association
creates personal encounters between
people with and without a history of immigration
in the spirit of living diversity.
The vision: to break down prejudices,
provide support through friendships and
build networks. This happens in so-called
“tandems”. The principle: based on
shared interests, living conditions and,
last but not least, the gut feeling of the
organizing team, each “newcomer” is
assigned a “local”. This is not to be confused
with a mentoring program, where,
for example, visits to the authorities
are taken care of. There are no obligations
and no pressure to succeed. “It’s
primarily about spending quality time
together as equals and making it easier
to settle in,” explain Thomas and Moe,
who found out about the initiative from
a co-founder of the association. The two
didn’t hang about, and in summer 2021
they used an online channel to convince
the association’s Berlin headquarters
that Chemnitz in particular needed the
Start with a Friend – SwaF for short –
program.
“They’re a real dream team. They were
and are highly motivated,” enthuses Josef
Al-Khalili. The association’s Regional
Coordinator East visits each location
twice a year to check on the status of
the charitable work. Today, he stops off
in Chemnitz by chance, mingles with the
newcomers, talks to locals and clearly
feels at home. “We had a good feeling
about Chemnitz right from the start,
especially in light of the riots in 2018.
Thomas and Moe were very well prepared
and had already established good
contacts and a network in the city.” Such
criteria are important for establishing
new locations – after all, the association
is financed with the help of public
funding. Although the placement of
tandems in the city could be expanded
– a good 20 have been formed so far –
Chemnitz has a very lively community.
They meet at least twice a month for
joint activities. The first Monday of the
month is a fixed date for the regulars’
table at Weltecho. Up to 35 people from
15 nations come along. In addition, bowling
evenings, paddle boat trips and joint
visits to the Niners bring the community
together.
Thomas has a family and a busy job.
Logically, the question often comes from
those around him: Why are you taking
on all of this? “I appreciate the international
exchange, I’m interested in their life
stories and their journey to Chemnitz. I
want to know what problems they have,
whether they are happy,” explains the
39-year-old, who next moment grows
very thoughtful: “The work does something
to you. I’m white, I have two children
who can grow up in safety – you realize
how privileged you are to live here. This
really hit home when I went to the association’s
national meeting in Cologne in
2022.”
Thomas and Moe are two of six organizers
in the Chemnitz team. Across
Germany, up to 350 dedicated members
are involved in connecting people with
and without a history of immigration.
Since the association was founded in
2014, more than 8,000 tandems have
come together. If you would like to get to
know and support the association, click
online at www.start-with-a-friend.de.
www.start-with-a-friend.de
7

TO THE JOB INTERVIEW
IN 17 HOURS
Foto: Ernesto Uhlmann
8

Jelena Blagojevic’s story can basically
be summed up in one word: ambition.
After all, anyone who sets out on a
1,300-kilometre drive to get to a job
interview in 17 hours must have a clear
goal in mind. In April 2015, that goal
was Chemnitz, where Jelena, who
comes from Serbia, introduced herself
at the occupational medicine consultancy
Arbeitsmedizinischer Dienst
Chemnitz ADC Dr. Grube GmbH, or
ADC for short. Today, she is not only a
permanent member of the team; she is
also part of the management and the
owner, having taken over the company
from its founder, Dr Grube, at the end
of 2022. A success story, that much is
certain. But the road there involved a
lot of work and a lot of persistence.
Jelena Blagojevic had already decided
on Germany as her destination in 2014: “I
studied medicine in Serbia, but I couldn’t get
a job through the normal channels. To gain
experience and stay in touch with the subject
matter, I sometimes worked without a salary.
In between, I even worked as a teacher for
two years.” So had it been a lot of effort for
nothing? She didn’t want to resign herself to
that. Together with her husband, she made
the decision to turn her back on Serbia in
order to gain a foothold in Germany. “Many
of my fellow students also dared to make
the move and emigrated to Norway, Austria
or the Czech Republic.” Jelena Blagojevic
speaks fluent German today, with no sign of
difficulties with the grammar. Just nine years
ago she didn’t know a single word of German.
“I attended a language school for a year and
finally passed the B2 level exam.” With this
certificate, German learners document that
they can communicate confidently in the
language in almost all situations in everyday
life and the world of work. Now she says she
is much more confident in German and the
proud holder of a C1 language certificate,
which attests to her language skills at a
far more advanced level. So the language
barrier had been overcome, but another big
hurdle awaits skilled workers from abroad:
German bureaucracy. This is where ADC
Dr. Grube stepped in because, for Jelena
Blagojevic, this hurdle was almost impossible
to overcome on her own: getting a work
permit, dealing with the authorities, renting
a flat, opening a bank account, finding a daycare
place and school for her two sons, who
were 5 and 16 years old at the time. “Most
of the support came from my employer – it
was a real culture of welcome,” she says.
Would she dare to take this step again? “Yes,
even though the first time was very stressful.
Everything was different, the culture, the
language. My sons didn’t know a word of
German. It was an extraordinary situation
for all of us.” Today, Jelena Blagojevic feels
she has arrived and still works for one of the
largest German private service providers in
the fields of occupational medicine, occupational
safety, traffic medicine, and travel and
tropical medicine.
then head of a polyclinic in Otto-Schmerbach-
Straße recognised the importance of a healthy
workforce for performance, well-being,
motivation and productivity. Today, people
are still the focus for ADC. Its mission is to
help protect them from negative influences
that may arise from their working conditions
through occupational health screening,
aptitude tests and recruitment examinations.
Incidentally, this duty of care is a mandatory
obligation for employers. Comprehensive
examinations under the German Driving
Licence Ordinance for lorries, buses, taxis
and passenger transport, travel medicine
consultations and vaccinations for professional
and private stays abroad, as well as
occupational integration management and
health management or safety-related advice
– all with the latest digital technology – are
part of the daily routine for the occupational
medicine consultants and specialists at ADC.
“Our team has many years of experience
and offers individual solutions tailored to
the specific company’s requirements. We
provide advice and support with all questions
relating to occupational health and safety
and health protection. Employers also like
to take advantage of our additional benefits
and services such as flu vaccinations or
examinations at their premises. This means
that employees don’t have to travel and can
return to their work after the examination,”
explains Managing Director Felix Ritter. Eight
years after her arrival in Chemnitz, Jelena
Blagojevic is also part of the management
team, which wants to expand and strengthen
the company to meet future challenges. They
are looking for specialists in occupational
safety and occupational health, medical
assistants and resident physicians who are
completing their specialist training – and
international specialists are also welcome.
“After all, we have had very good experiences
with motivated people from abroad.”
WEITERE INFOS:
Arbeitsmedizinischer Dienst
Chemnitz
chemnitz.jobs/amdgrube
4
ADC, which operates regionally and nationwide,
was founded as an occupational medicine
consultancy by Dr Grube after the fall of the
Wall. Even back in the days of the GDR, the
Our employees come from:
Germany, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland
Applications in German and English to:
karriere@adc-web.de
9

“THEIR DRIVE COUNTS MORE
THAN THEIR NATIONALITY.”
Photos: Heitec AG
Mr Krübel, in addition to its nine locations
across Germany, HEITEC AG is
also represented abroad – including in
Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and China.
So having international specialists
here at the Chemnitz site isn’t new
territory for you?
That’s right. To give one example, we
are currently training two specialists
from China here at the site so that we
can implement our customer standards
locally in Shanghai. Among
other things, this includes certified
safety programming, which plays
a major role in the development of
safe production machinery. We also
train skilled workers in cooperation
with our branches in Hungary and
Romania. We’ve had employees from
India, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, Belarus,
Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece,
Spain and the USA. The proportion
of international skilled workers from
abroad in our workforce is currently
around ten per cent.
How significant is having a cultural
background from all over the world for
the company’s success?
Having different perspectives as a result
of different cultural mentalities is clearly
an asset for every company. However, I
would attach less importance to our employees’
nationalities. What counts first
and foremost for us is their attitude and
their drive to achieve something together.
We also see this as very important with our
German applicants. Just yesterday I had
an interesting telephone conversation with
a young man from Syria who is studying in
Chemnitz and made a very good impression
on me. Right from the start, I could tell
that he wants to integrate professionally
and personally here. In contrast, there are,
10

The interaction of software, mechanics and
electronics has been the flagship of HEITEC
AG for four decades. With its technologically
high-quality and economical solutions, the
company helps more than 2,000 customers
worldwide increase their productivity
and optimise their products. The company’s
roughly 1,200 employees at numerous
locations in Germany and abroad have an
in-depth technical knowledge of sectors
including the automotive industry, packaging
technology, energy, medicine, food and beverages,
shipbuilding, aerospace and logistics. In
Germany alone, the company has nine locations,
including its headquarters in Erlangen. These
sites both operate independently and cooperate
across projects. In Chemnitz, HEITEC employs
more than 80 people, many of
whom come from other countries
to join the company.
We wanted to know more
and asked site manager
Holger Krübel.
HOLGER KRÜBEL
IN THE INTERVIEW
unfortunately, other applicants who are
arrogant rather than polite.
Let’s talk about the keyword integration:
what is HEITEC AG’s strategy for
the long-term retention of international
specialists?
Of course, it’s a big advantage for the
company if Chemnitz or the region is the
centre of international employees’ lives.
Due to the lack of family ties, skilled workers
from other countries are naturally
more inclined to change jobs again or to
turn their backs on Germany. To address
this, we uphold a corporate culture that
appeals equally to all employees. This
includes team sporting events, such as
the company run and group hiking tours,
as well as barbecue afternoons and visits
to the local wine festival. As a sponsor of
the Niners, Chemnitz’s basketball team,
we also follow their games together.
They clearly set an example in terms of
integration that shows quite vividly how a
team of international players is capable
of top performances. We always like to
take this spirit back to the company.
What about German language skills?
Are they essential for gaining a
foothold here at HEITEC’s location in
Chemnitz?
Even though we are a company that
operates internationally, it is an advantage
to either have good German
language skills already or acquire them
over time. Our work in the region and
on a nationwide level involves a lot of
customer care. Customer contact and
meetings are part of our daily business.
Sometimes our German employees find
it difficult to keep an important appointment.
Now imagine that you don’t speak
the customers’ language and are asked
to clarify complex issues. Of course,
you can usually talk to our customers
in English. But then misunderstandings
can’t be ruled out. Incidentally, there are
also challenges over which we have no
influence – for example, US laws that
apply worldwide. The background to this
is the sanctions against certain states
adopted by Congress in Washington. For
example, it’s much more difficult to hire
skilled personnel from Iran in Germany
because of the embargo.
Thank you very much for the interesting
insights.
You’re most welcome.
WEITERE INFOS:
HEITEC
chemnitz.jobs/heitec
People from nine different
nations work at the Chemnitz site:
Germany, China, India, Spain, Switzerland, USA
Applicants can apply in German and English.
Contact: Stephanie.Titz@heitec.de and
https://www.heitec.de/de/karriere/
6
11

“AN ASSET ON MANY
LEVELS“
On the grounds of the Europark business park
in the south of Chemnitz, where iFD GmbH has
its headquarters, several signs read “Parking
regulations” – at first, nothing unusual. It’s only
after talking to the company’s international
specialists that you realise that, yes, somehow
it’s typically German after all. In our country,
everything is regulated, even in duplicate and
triplicate. Nothing is left to chance. Hossam, Ashfag
and Nikunj told us why this does not scare
off skilled workers from abroad.
Nikunj
Ashfaq
Hossam
Photos: iFD GmbH
12

Founded in 1990 as a development
service provider for intralogistics, the iFD
Group is now a force to be reckoned with
in the field of logistics software. Covering
everything from systems for warehouse
management to material flow control
and forklift control, the company develops
modular applications for automated
and manual intralogistics in industry
and commerce. These solutions can be
integrated into almost any logistics environment
and are highly intuitive to use.
Companies such as BMW, Audi, Komsa,
Siemens and Schnellecke Logistics rely
on the expertise of the more than 100
employees of the iFD Group, which has
its headquarters in Chemnitz. And ten
per cent of this expertise is embodied by
international specialists who find their
way to the company in very different
ways.
For example, Hossam, a student trainee
from Egypt, was recommended by a
technical partner of the company from
Karlsruhe, who had first met the now
45-year-old when he introduced himself
at a careers fair. “This is already my
second stay in Germany. The first time I
came here was in 2012 as a scholarship
holder as part of a cooperation between
Egypt and Germany.” After completing
his master’s degree in Kassel, he was
initially drawn back to his home country,
where he worked for several years as a
project manager. But Germany, the “land
of ideas”, never completely let go of him.
“I was always impressed by the way that
German companies think into the future
and don’t rest on their laurels.” This is a
quality that Hossam also has. His interest
in the future topics of big data and
artificial intelligence eventually led him
to the Faculty of Business Information
Systems at Furtwangen University. He
began writing his bachelor’s dissertation
at iFD GmbH one year ago in summer
2023. For Hossam, one thing is certain:
“My future lies in Germany. I still have to
improve my German to achieve that,” he
smiles, almost apologetically, from under
his baseball cap.
“The reverse is also true for us,” adds
authorised signatory Susann Erkmann.
“We recently took the arrival of our
student trainees as an opportunity to
introduce English Days – three days a
month on which only English is spoken in
our company. We also organise regular
English courses through the adult education
centre to improve or refresh our
employees’ knowledge.” This is important
in order to be able to open up international
markets in the future. A multicultural
company that employs people
from all over the world also has another
competitive advantage: “In discussions
with customers – in the Arab world, for
example – it’s always different when
native speakers communicate with each
other. That creates a foundation of trust
right away.”
However, this enormous value that
international skilled workers offer is
something that many people still haven’t
grasped, says Hossam: “Lots of qualified
people with a real determination to
develop move on because they don’t feel
they have found their place here. That
absolutely has to change.” What’s more,
he adds, Germany is more inflexible and
complicated than other countries. “Many
things could be quicker and simpler. The
country is overly organised and systematic,”
says Hossam, who backs this up
with an anecdote about his broken fridge.
“It was inspected by two people before a
third person finally fixed it. I guess it had
to do with responsibilities.”
Ashfag has to laugh and nods in agreement.
Hossam’s 22-year-old roommate is
from India and has also been working as
a student trainee at iFD GmbH since July
2023. In addition to writing his bachelor’s
thesis, he is getting to know the company
and its software through many small
projects. The quality of German work,
especially in the software sector, attracted
him to Germany. India is catching up
in this field, but finding a job and earning
money is much more difficult in his home
country. What does he appreciate about
his current workplace? “The good environment
and open communication. I’ve
received support with all my questions
from the very beginning. Unfortunately, I
haven’t seen much of the city yet because
I’ve been busy setting up our flat.”
Nikunj steps in for Ashfag and describes
the city as remarkably green and not too
big or too small. “It’s just the right size,”
says the 30-year-old. He should know;
after all, he has already stayed in several
cities during his studies. After graduating
in India, he went on to study for a master’s
degree in Germany in 2015. During
this time, he completed an internship
in Frankfurt, wrote his dissertation in
Augsburg and then worked at Siemens in
Stuttgart. He signed a permanent employment
contract with iFD two years ago
and gained a foothold in simulation. Currently,
Nikunj is continuing his education
in the field of software development.
Susann Erkmann sees the international
specialists has having much more than
“just” economic added value for the
company. “With their very different mentalities
and religious and cultural backgrounds,
they have a positive influence on
our employees’ mindset,” she says, and
she can speak from experience. “Having
diverse perspectives broadens our own
horizons of experience, and we have even
been served one or two typical delicacies
from their home countries,” Susann Erkmann
recalls with a smile. “Professionals
from abroad are simply an asset on so
many levels.”
WEITERE INFOS:
iFD GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/ifd
People from nine different
nations work at the Chemnitz site:
Germany, Russia, India, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine,
Bulgaria, USA, Moldova.
Applications can be submitted in German, English or
Arabic. Send applications to: personal@ifd-gmbh.com
9
13

Fotos: Scia Systems GmbH
WHERE SMOOTHNESS IS
THE KEY TO SUCCESS
If there’s anywhere that things go really smoothly, it’s at scia Systems GmbH – literally! Because the flagship of the company with more than 200
employees is a surface treatment so precise that the surface of highly polished stainless steel resembles an Alpine panorama in close-up. For
comparison: this type of stainless steel has what is known as a roughness value of between 0.1 and 0.5 micrometres. When processing ultra-thin
layers on silicon wafers, which are needed for devices such as smartphones, scia Systems creates smooth surfaces with a height difference of just
0.001 micrometres. That’s one nanometre or one millionth of a millimetre!
14

WEITERE INFOS:
scia Systems GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/scia
Contact for applicants:
Susan Förster, +49 (0)371 33561-285
bewerbung@scia-jobs.de
It’s no wonder that these systems for
precise surface processing are in
demand worldwide – from the USA to
China. Based on ion beam and plasma
technologies, they are used for various
coating, etching and cleaning processes,
including in the microelectronics
and precision optics industries. “You
can think of it as sandblasting on the
nanometre scale,” explains Marketing
Manager Mandy Eckert. To give just
a few examples, all 798 segments of
the main mirror in the world’s largest
telescope in Chile have been processed
with equipment from scia Systems. For
the production of augmented reality
glasses, the company’s machines etch
the finest optical gratings into the glass,
and its expertise also comes into play
in medicine – including in the coating of
stents, medical implants made of metal.
“We even claim that 99.9 per cent of
Chemnitz residents have already held
in their hands a smartphone whose
components have passed through our
machines,” says Mandy Eckert confidently.
These machines, which go by
the name of scia Trim 200, ensure a
greater yield of base plates (wafers)
in semiconductor production and are
also the company’s best seller. For
other industries, scia Systems machines
can easily be up to 15 metres long
and weigh 60 tonnes. On average, 40
machines leave the production line
every year. On site at its location in Clemens-Winkler-Straße
in Chemnitz, the
comparatively young company is not
yet dependent on international specialists,
but its cooperation with companies
from other countries is decisive in its
success: “Worldwide, 17 sales partners
take care of sales, represent us at trade
fairs and also oversee international
projects with service staff.” Working
with them has a clear advantage: “Our
partners know the regional and local
customs on the ground. A sales talk in
China, for example, differs enormously
from a company presentation in Turkey.”
But even though its cooperation
with international skilled workers is currently
still limited to its overseas business,
scia Systems is watching the local
labour market very closely. There could
be more new recruits, in particular
from the skilled trades and the IT sector.
Mandy Eckert emphasises that the
company can’t rule out hiring skilled
workers from abroad to fill vacancies at
the Chemnitz site in the future. “We see
qualifications and language barriers as
the biggest challenges. Good German
language skills are absolutely essential
for communication within our team
and with customers.” In order to meet
the future demand for skilled workers,
scia Systems is also training future
industrial mechanics and mechatronics
engineers itself. This will be expanded
with trainees specialising in warehouse
logistics from the 2024 training year.
And those who gain a foothold in the
company are very likely to stay for a
long time: “We have little fluctuation
in our workforce,” says Mandy Eckert
proudly. “This is down to good teamwork
and our low-hierarchy structures
and short communication channels.
Holiday and Christmas bonuses, our
own canteen and family-friendly, flexible
working hours also contribute to
the satisfaction of our employees.” And
when the opportunity arises, they also
celebrate together. And, without giving
too much away, we can reveal this:
there are plenty of such opportunities
at scia Systems.
15

Fotos: Johannes Richter, AWO Chemnitz
“I WORK WITH MY
WHOLE HEART“
Training as a carer is versatile, varied and requires a great deal of dedication to the
job. The ongoing shortage of skilled workers in the care sector makes people who
have completed their training the saviours of the hour – after all, there’s no stopping
demographic change. International trainee Visel Bozhigi completed his training
at AWO Chemnitz in March 2023 and talks about his career in our interview.
WEITERE INFOS:
AWO - Arbeiterwohlfahrt
Chemnitz
chemnitz.jobs/awo
Our international specialists
come from:
Bulgaria, Tunisia, Iraq, Greece, Iran, Syria, Brazil,
Turkey, the Russian Federation, Vietnam, Poland,
Cuba, Senegal, India
Email applications to: bewerbung@awo-chemnitz.de
Please apply in German (minimum requirement: B2 level)
work to extend his residence permit.
Hardly any other profession is as meaningful
as being a carer. And above all,
when your profession and your vocation
go hand in hand, you work like Visel –
with all your heart.
14
Visel Bozhigi is 31 years old, a father of
three and a carer with heart and soul. He
wears a red nursing blouse, white trousers
and square glasses. He got up at
four o’clock this morning. He comes from
Albania, where he played one season for
the third-division football club Sopoti Librazhd.
After an injury, he tried his hand
at coaching for around a year and came
to Germany in 2018. He worked here for
about two years on an assembly line. To
have more time to spend with his family,
he decided to train with AWO in 2020. He
is the epitome of a family man: he loves
his wife and children, and their well-being
is what is most precious to Visel. But the
same also applies to his residents.
“When I’m at work, I feel like I’m in my
own home with my residents. I feel like
I’m part of a family here and try to make
the lives of all the residents better,” says
Visel Bozhigi. The atmosphere on the
short-term care ward is very pleasant:
there are lots of jokes, just earlier he was
singing with the residents, and after a
long period of sick leave, he was missed
by many. The residents like Visel because
he makes them feel that they are not
alone. He casually says with a likeable
matter-of-factness: “I don’t see it just as a
job – I work with my whole heart.”
When he looks back, Visel Bozhigi speaks
very favourably about his successful
training. As the only international trainee
in his year, he always received a lot of
support from his colleagues and fellow
trainees and the AWO practical training
supervisor. While the other trainees only
had to worry about passing their exams,
Visel was also taking care of the paper-
Fotos: Johannes Richter
16

“I had to explain again and again that you eat pani puri
with your hands. You have to fill the dough balls with the
sauces and then bite into them quickly,” laughs Priyal
Narola. “When I told my dad back home that nobody knew
this, he couldn’t even imagine it.” When his company
hosted a culinary get-together, the process development
engineer prepared his favourite Indian street food: crispy,
deep-fried dough balls made from wheat flour, cornflour
and semolina (pani), which are filled with a more or less
liquid curry (puri).
the language to be able to communicate
fully in every situation. “Then it’s helpful
if you know a little English.”
She is already planning the next culinary
get-together and gathering ideas
– “After all, we can’t have our international
colleagues cook every time now.”
Even if there are certainly some who
would like to try another dish prepared
by Priyal Narola. “Maybe next time we’ll
let our colleagues from Bavaria do the
cooking.” (laughs)
[HINDI: ENJOY
YOUR MEAL!]
It was the first event of its kind organised
by 3D-Micromac: international
specialities instead of the usual grilled
sausage. All the international employees
who wanted to take part were given time
off work and a small budget to either
cook or source a favourite meal from
a restaurant. “We have to bear in mind
that not everyone likes to cook,” says
HR officer Maria Göbel. Since 2022, she
has prioritised intercultural encounters
and integrating international employees
– after all, there are quite a few of them
at 3D-Micromac: in total, 21 of its 197
employees come from abroad.
Together, they develop laser systems
that cut photovoltaic cells for satellites
or lenses for AR glasses, drill microfine
holes in filters and perform any other
tasks that defeat conventional tools due
to their lack of precision. “The machines
we develop are generally used to manufacture
products and technologies that
won’t come on to the market until 2030,
2035 or 2040,” adds Maria Göbel with
obvious pride.
To make sure that the company remains
as future-proof as its technologies,
3D-Micromac has long recognised
internationalisation as an opportunity
in the pervasive struggle against the
shortage of skilled workers – which also
means creating a work culture in which
employees from all backgrounds feel
comfortable. According to Priyal Narola,
3D-Micromac is already doing a lot of
things right here: “The style of work
is different from India. There is a flat
hierarchy here. I have more freedom to
contribute my ideas and suggestions.
This also makes for a friendly and
supportive working environment and
a relaxed working atmosphere.” At the
same time, Maria Göbel makes sure that
new recruits have a few basic English
skills if possible. Although the company
language is still German, not all foreign
employees are proficient enough yet in
WEITERE INFOS:
3D‐Micromac AG
chemnitz.jobs/3d
Our specialists come from:
Germany, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia,
Ukraine, Syria, the Czech Republic, Tunisia, Turkey
and the USA
Applications in German or English to:
jobs@3d-micromac.com
Fotos: Johannes Richter
12
17

INDIVIDUAL WELCOME
PACKAGES AND BUDDIES ON AN
EQUAL FOOTING
18
Fotos: Staffbade
WHILE MANY COMPANIES ARE CURRENTLY SLOWLY
STARTING TO PUT OUT THEIR FEELERS TO RECRUIT
EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONALLY, STAFFBASE IS ONE OF
THE PIONEERS IN THIS FIELD.

did some important educational work
in the company,” laughs Marie Friedrich,
and she adds: “Having office events
for the whole team also helps people to
get to know each other and to network
– sometimes at the soft-serve ice-cream
machine, sometimes over a bag of
popcorn or at a big Halloween party.” The
company does not hold Christmas parties
in the traditional sense, however, out
of respect for all the employees’ religious
backgrounds. “Instead, we have a holiday
party that is not linked to any religion or
customs.” She has some tips for companies
that want to position themselves
as attractive employers internationally:
“Just do it and don’t hope for groundbreaking
political changes. Diversity in
the workforce brings many different perspectives,
skills and cultural influences
that foster creativity and innovation.”
This is in the nature of the company,
which will be just ten years old in 2024,
but is already represented in seven
other countries besides Germany – in
the Netherlands, the UK, Finland, Sweden,
the USA, Canada and Australia. More
than 700 employees worldwide work on
the Staffbase communications platform,
which connects companies and their
employees – on desktop computers,
via email, chat or an app. The Chemnitz
location alone has 165 employees, including
international professionals from 14
nations. Marie Friedrich, Vice President
of People Experience, is therefore very
familiar with terms such as residence
and settlement permit, EU Blue Card and
visa. “Nevertheless, integration into the
local world of work is always a tough and
gruelling process. Waiting months for a
work permit is not the exception but the
rule.” She knows something else, too: “However,
that isn’t the end of it. Our culture
of welcome doesn’t stop in the workplace
but extends beyond it. That means that
we offer a relocation service and put
together individual packages that include
things such as help with moving or with
finding day-care and school places for
the children. Our packages also cover
issues such as health insurance, other
types of insurance and language
acquisition. Involvement in everyday life
is an essential step towards full integration.”
Staffbase also leaves nothing to
chance when it comes to onboarding, the
planned integration of new employees
into the company. Buddies support the
new team members as direct points of
contact and make sure they are familiar
with all the important information. They
act like mentors – with the difference that
they are on an equal footing. Staffbase
distinguishes between two types of
buddies: Role Buddies usually come
from the same team or similar functions
and explain the employee’s immediate
working environment. Culture Buddies,
on the other hand, help new employees
understand the company’s vision, culture
and strategy. It’s not uncommon for German
cultural peculiarities to need some
explaining, according to Marie Friedrich:
“An Indian employee whose daughter
was about to start school had no idea
what the custom of giving children a
‘school cone’ on their first day of school
was. To make sure her little girl wasn’t
the only child without a school cone filled
with goodies on her first day, our parents
Our employees come from:
Germany, Albania, Czech Republic, Egypt, France,
India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia,
Morocco, Pakistan, Romania, Russian Federation, USA
All the information on how to apply is available at:
www.staffbase.com/jobs
Applications are welcome in German or English.
WEITERE INFOS:
Staffbase
chemnitz.jobs/staffbase
16
19

“IT ALL COMES DOWN TO
SHARED VALUES.”
A personal conversation with a managing director sometimes reveals more than just information about the company’s philosophy.
It can also solve many a mystery. Such as why there is a huge basket filled with nashi pears in the reception of DELTA
BARTH Systemhaus GmbH in Limbach-Oberfrohna, for example. “Quite simply, I’m a part-time farmer, and I like to share,”
laughs Annett Barth, whose main job is serving as managing director of the IT company founded by her father in 2011.
What began in 1990 as a computer
technology distributor now supports
organisations with optimising their
internal digital processes – starting with
PC workstations and going all the way
through to the construction of complex
networks. DELTA BARTH’s proprietary
core software DELECO® connects all the
departments of a company – especially
in the mechanical and plant engineering
sectors – and networks data, information
and work processes, with lucrative
results. Behind the industry-specific
solutions are 65 clever minds who enrich
DELTA BARTH not only with their labour,
but above all with their individual personalities.
We wanted to know more and
met Annett Barth for an interview.
The demand for DELTA BARTH’s expertise
can be seen not least in your employee
numbers: since 2011, your headcount has
more than doubled from 30 to 65. Against
the backdrop of the increasing shortage
of skilled workers, this cannot be taken for
granted.
Many companies are clearly feeling the
lack of skilled staff. We feel it, too, but
we’re fortunate that numerous employees
have heard of us through earlier
recommendations. This makes us proud
and speaks for our corporate culture.
Fotos: DELTA GmbH
ANNETT BARTH, GESCHÄFTSFÜHRERIN
Employees particularly appreciate the
fact that our family business is steady
and consistent in a time of change. Ultimately,
this consistency also includes the
special features that our developers are
involved in creating: they shape the entire
process chain up to the roll-out of the
software, which is adapted to the client’s
preferences. You won’t find a platform
like this, one that allows client requirements
to be implemented systematically,
everywhere.
Is that why your employees remain loyal
to the company for years and even decades?
(laughs) That and our company chef
“Goldi”, who has been conjuring up the
most delicious menus for 25 years. An
internal company survey really showed
that our in-house kitchen is at the top of
the list of the most popular benefits. So
no one has to worry about lunch. But our
e-bike leasing scheme and subsidies for
public transport and day care also contribute
to the satisfaction of our employees.
And on Thursdays we generally have
20

a home office day. That’s an additional
relief for colleagues who sometimes have
to commute up to 50 kilometres to work.
Working from home is also possible more
often. However, it is important to us that
more than 50 per cent of an employee’s
working time is spent in the company.
Because if employees exchange information
only via online meetings and
don’t experience our corporate culture
first-hand, the workplace will eventually
become indistinguishable from any other
company.
To what extent are young trainees part of
this corporate culture?
Supporting young talent is an integral
part of our philosophy. Every year, we
offer apprenticeships for IT specialists
in application development and system
integration. We’ve also been a training
partner for the local university of cooperative
education, the Berufsakademie
Glauchau, from the very beginning. The
professors know and appreciate us because
they can be sure that new team
members will receive practical support,
true to the spirit of a family business.
They’re involved in all the work processes
right from the start of their
dual study programme. In addition to a
person responsible for training, we also
have an organisational contact person
and professional mentors – this combination
has established itself excellently
over the years. .
DELTA BARTH Systemhaus GmbH serves
around 300 companies nationwide. Do
you sometimes consider putting out feelers
beyond Germany’s borders?
Indeed, we’ve thought about it from time
to time. I can’t rule it out in the future, but
at the moment, it doesn’t make sense for
us to expand. We are a hands-on company
and want to remain that way. That
means that we don’t just look after our
users over the phone – we usually also
visit them on-site to provide technical
support.
Does that also mean that international
specialists are not yet an issue for DELTA
BARTH?
We do employ some people with
foreign roots, but that came about
through the recommendations that I
mentioned at the beginning. We haven’t
looked for them actively yet. Our
international professionals come from
Bulgaria and India, but they have been
settled in the region for years and feel
like they’ve found their place here.
They value having a long-term employment
relationship and appreciate the
family environment in our company. In
addition, they have convinced us with
their expertise, and they contribute as
team players. Incidentally, we also attach
great importance to this with our
German employees. If you can communicate
with each other directly and on
an equal footing, you’ll feel at home in
our company. That’s also why I have a
hard time when it comes to advertising
vacancies. Just checking off qualifications
says nothing about applicants. I
prefer to meet face to face and get a
feel for the positions in our company
where they can develop best.
It’s been a pleasure talking to you.
You’re welcome.
DELTA BARTH has international
employees from two countries
on its team:
Bulgaria; India
Applications to:
Annett Barth, Managing Director
bewerbungen@delta-barth.de
WEITERE INFOS:
DELTA BARTH Sytemhaus GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/delta_barth
2
21

REVOLUTIONISING THE
APPLICATION PROCESS
The Business Village at Beckerstraße 13
brings together everything that needs to
come together in a sharing economy: ultra-modern
office and conference rooms
for companies, start-ups and co-workers,
designed and created by Büroland GmbH,
meet digital workplace solutions developed
by e-dox GmbH. The one thing the
Business Village shouldn’t be short of is
the right human resources to fill it with
life. But App Concept didn’t just want to
develop the next job portal...
ALIF KHAN
22

What do recruiting and online dating
have in common? The search for the
perfect match! With JobsNavi, App
Concept has not only succeeded in
revolutionising the application process,
but has also made itself a best
case. Based on AI, JobsNavi works like
a dating app – it’s multilingual and
therefore international. Its prime focus
is on IT specialists for SMEs. There are
currently around 400 professionals registered
in Bangladesh alone who are
actively looking for jobs in Europe and
Germany. This is also how App Concept
finds its own employees – including Alif
Khan from Dhaka. After completing his
bachelor’s degree in Bangladesh, he
researched universities offering Master’s
degrees in Automotive Software
Engineering and came across Chemnitz
University of Technology. At the
end of his studies, he started looking
for jobs and came across JobsNavi: “It
was a lucky coincidence that we met!”
he says.
To open up prospects for Alif Khan in
the company and make it easier for
him to stay, Founder and Managing
Director Uwe Thuß is also happy to
lend a hand personally: he not only
accompanied his new employee to
the immigration office to apply for his
Blue Card, but also helped him find
a suitable flat and finally move his
furniture. Today, almost a year later,
Uwe Thuß is already talking about Alif
Khan becoming one of the company’s
registered partners in the future. The
last hurdle to overcome is the German
language: only B1 level will guarantee
the Bangladeshi permanent residence
in Chemnitz. But Alif Khan laughs: Bengali,
Hindi, Arabic – those are difficult
languages. But German, with its Latin
alphabet, is comparatively easy.
Having its own corporate language is
therefore just one of many things App
Concept sees as only natural in its
efforts to make working with its international
employees easier and, above
all, more fun. The list also includes
company events, group visits to the
Christmas market and wine festival,
and the option to work remotely at any
time. But as much as Alif Khan enjoys
returning home to Dhaka to visit his
family for a while, he also appreciates
the office atmosphere in Chemnitz.
Although he has the freedom to work
from home, he comes to the Business
Village every day: “I can’t create this
atmosphere at home. Working from an
office like this is extraordinary!” – that’s
another compliment for Büroland and
the (international) success of the Business
Village.
Fotos: Johannes Richter
WEITERE INFOS:
app-concept.com GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/bueroland
Our specialists come from:
Germany, Bangladesh, Ukraine and Morocco
4
Applications in English or German to:
info@app-concept.com
23

Fotos: Stadler Chemnitz GmbH
HE CAME TO GIVE
SOMETHING BACK
As Aliaksantr Filipavets – we’re allowed to call him Alexander from now on – waits for his interview
in the conference room of Stadler Chemnitz GmbH, his nervousness increases. His German
is not yet as good as he would like it to be after more than two years of language lessons.
However, his concerns that he won’t understand everything evaporate within a few minutes, and
we have before us a man bursting with hope, joie de vivre and a good dose of self-deprecating
humour. Maybe it’s the anticipation of his mother’s visit this week. Or maybe the 36-year-old is
just happy that he has been able to overcome the hardships of the past years together with his
wife and their little daughter. Alexander comes from Belarus, a country that has changed a lot
since the controversial presidential election in 2020, as he explains.
24

“BUT ABOVE ALL, I WANT
TO MAKE MY CONTRIBU-
TION TO THE GERMAN
ECONOMY.“
He is one of around 300,000 people who
have turned their backs on the country
since then, he says. “The political situation,
exorbitant prices, hardly any jobs
and corruption – the desire for change
grows automatically.” Yet the mechanical
engineer had a reasonably secure job at
Stadler’s location in Minsk: “However, the
number of employees there has more
than halved since the war in Ukraine
began, from 1,500 to 600.” Alexander
finally took the initiative and wanted to
make a new start in Germany. Why here
of all places? “My wife’s sister has been
working as a doctor in Germany for
some time. We visited often and got to
know and love the country on numerous
city tours.” But instead of simply moving
to one of the Stadler Group’s German
locations, Alexander initially made about
300 applications – without success. “In
most cases, my lack of German language
skills was an obstacle,” he says.
Then, in the summer of 2022, he got the
chance to move to the Chemnitz location,
where the language barrier didn’t
matter much. “We work with the same
system worldwide. This makes integration
much easier for specialists from
other international Stadler locations,”
explains HR Manager Christin Walther.
“To break down the language barrier
over time, there is a free in-house
German course once a week. On the
other hand, our German employees get
the opportunity to develop their English
skills.” In this way, internationalisation
at the Chemnitz location is gradually
progressing, which naturally makes
sense given the worldwide success of
the Stadler Group. The company has
been building rail vehicles for customers
all over the world for over 80 years and
has been the market leader in the field
of alternative drive technologies such as
electric and hydrogen drives for some
years now. This year alone, orders have
come from the USA, Italy, Lithuania and
Norway, among other countries. Stadler
maintains a flexible team of around 180
engineers and developers at its Chemnitz
location. Its employees provide engineering
services to the Stadler Group
in the areas of construction, calculations,
electronics, pneumatics and multi-body
simulation. Alexander works as an
installation planner and is responsible
for the electrical cabling inside the rail
vehicles. His Chemnitz colleagues have
always been very helpful right from the
start. “We even received a washing machine
from a colleague. We were quite
surprised that flats in Germany are usually
let unfurnished. In Belarus, it’s the
other way around,” laughs Alexander.
To further strengthen the international
team’s cohesion, monthly get-togethers
such as outdoor outings, picnics or rubber
dinghy tours are regular
fixtures on the calendar.
In the meantime, Alexander
feels he has found his place
and now hopes that his wife
will also soon find a job as
a civil engineer. “It’ll work
out,” he says confidently
because he has had a lot
of practice in waiting. In
Belarus, he waited weeks
for a positive decision from
the German embassy. In
Germany, it took another
CHRISTIN WALTHER
five months for his studies to be recognised
and a further six months to find a
suitable day-care place for his daughter.
Opening a bank account also proved to
be extremely complicated due to the
international sanctions against Belarus.
However, Alexander is not somebody
who has regrets about his past. On the
contrary, he prefers to look ahead: “I
want to grow old here,” he says with
assurance, and he adds: “But above
all, I want to make my contribution to
the German economy. I want to give
something back.” Christin Walther has
some advice for companies that want to
improve their efforts to hire skilled workers
from abroad: “Be open about it and
put your fear of trying something new
to one side. There are numerous points
of contact who support companies in
this area. In any case, we have had very
good experiences with international
skilled workers.”
WEITERE INFOS:
Stadler Chemnitz GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/stadler
Our international skilled workers
come from:
Deutschland, Belarus, Spain, India, Iran, Morocco, Syria,
Tunisia, Ukraine and the USA.
Applications in German, English or Russian to:
Christin.Walther@stadlerrail.com
10
25

“MY WORK IS
DIVERSITY THROUGH
AND THROUGH.”
Fotos: Vektor Informatik GmbH
The 64,000-dollar question: how does a company manage to grow from just under 50 employees to
more than 4,000 overnight? The answer is simple: it becomes part of a much larger company that is
represented at more than 33 locations worldwide. This is what happened in May 2023, when Vector
Informatik GmbH took over Chemnitz-based BASELABS GmbH – a software company specialising in
sensor data fusion for automated driving – in its entirety. BASELABS was launched in spring 2012 as
a technology transfer project at Chemnitz University of Technology. Just two years later, Vector, the
world’s leading specialist in the development of automotive electronics, became a strategic investor.
“During this time, we were able to find out how well our individual corporate cultures fit together,”
explains Robin Schubert, Managing Director of BASELABS. “From our perspective as founders, it is
an absolute win for Chemnitz that a company like Vector wants to establish a major location here
for the rapidly growing field of vehicle software,” Schubert adds.
26

Pratham Arora
Customers from the automotive, commercial
vehicle, aeronautical, transport and
control engineering sectors worldwide
rely on the solutions and products of the
independent Vector Group, which has been
working on tomorrow’s electronic technologies
for more than 35 years. Vector’s
new site in Chemnitz will also contribute
significantly to the development of future
generations of automotive software. “Our
work in Chemnitz will focus on various
aspects of the software-defined vehicle.
To achieve this, we will continue to expand
the site,” explains Thomas Beck, Managing
Director of Vector Informatik. In the future,
the Chemnitz site is set grow to around 150
employees and will increasingly employ
international specialists.
Looking at the company headquarters in
Stuttgart shows that cooperation between
different nationalities can greatly enrich an
organisation. Here, people from 64 nations
work together in teams, some large, some
small. “My work is diversity through and
through,” says Thomas Stolz, who has been
part of the Vector family for eight years.
For the past year, he has headed a team of
14 in the Embedded Software Department,
which acts as a point of contact for customers
and aims to ensure that the products
developed by Vector are ultimately used
successfully. His team members mostly
work on front-line customer support, coaching
or software deliveries. Thomas’s role
as the first level of escalation is to make
sure that problems and conflicts are dealt
with effectively and swiftly in order to maintain
customer or employee satisfaction.
“That translates as: if there’s a fire,
we’re there,” laughs Thomas Stolz,
who also acts as a mediator between
cultures. “Every cultural group brings
a different approach, different learning
processes and different ideas to
our work. This is also personally enriching
and something I don’t have in
my private life. One of my tasks is to
create an awareness of the idiosyncrasies
of other cultures. Incidentally,
we Germans have our idiosyncrasies,
too,” says Thomas Stolz.
Team member Essam Rizk can list
some of these idiosyncrasies: “Germans
work close to perfection. They have a
fondness for details and obviously love
hiking,” smiles the 31-year-old Egyptian.
The electrical engineering graduate was
looking for a new personal challenge and
found it at Vector in March 2022. The
company’s welcoming culture is one of the
best he has ever experienced. He got to
grips with its specialist topics with the aid
of a mentor, and his colleagues are still a
great source of support with any questions
he has. He shares his tips for international
specialists who want to follow the same
path as him: “Make sure you learn German
before you arrive. At work, communication
isn’t a problem because everyone speaks
English. It’s a different story in your free
time. Good German really helps in being
able to participate fully in social and cultural
life.” Essam certainly has enough time
to improve his German. He would like to
return to his home country in ten years at
the earliest. And so that he doesn’t always
have to wait until his annual holiday to
satisfy his longing to see family and friends,
Vector allows its employees to work from
home for 30 days a year. On top of this, an
additional 28 days per year can be spent
working abroad. Essam also prefers to use
these days to extend his stays in Egypt.
Pratham Arora, another member of
Thomas Stolz’s team, also has no plans to
return to his home country of India any
time soon. In September 2015, the 33-year-old
moved to Germany to complete his
Master’s degree in Automotive Software
Engineering at Chemnitz University of
Technology. “In 2017, I moved from Chemnitz
to Stuttgart to do an internship at Vector
and then write my master’s dissertation.
A year later, I was offered a full-time job.”
He has many more job opportunities in his
field here in Germany, says Pratham, who
clearly feels at home in the Vector family.
“Internal and cross-team events – from
cinema trips to laser tag – make integration
easier. Twice a week after work, there’s
the opportunity to socialise with others
over free drinks and make new friends,”
he explains. In addition, regular meetups
are occasions for employees from the
same home country to get together. The
programmes offered by the Vector fitness
studio, such as Zumba classes or yoga, are
interesting, but unfortunately not in English.
“If I were to improve anything, it would be
that,” says Pratham. Incidentally, Essam and
Pratham believe that the biggest challenge
in Germany by far is the local bureaucracy.
The fact that they can pronounce words
such as Ausländerbehörde (immigration
office), Aufenthaltsgenehmigung (residence
permit) and Niederlassungserlaubnis
(settlement permit) in perfect German
shows that they have already had plenty of
experience with the German authorities.
“If you go to the immigration office without
an appointment, you should definitely allow
plenty of time. Some people sleep on the
street just to be at the front of the queue
the next morning. The situation is horrendous,”
says Pratham, speaking from experience.
This is also why he does not want to
apply for German citizenship. “The process
simply takes too long.”
WEITERE INFOS:
Vector Informatik GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/vector
People from 64 nations work
at Vector Informatik GmbH.
Applications in German or English to:
hr@vector.com
64
27

NEW WORK, NEW NORMAL
Bettina Helgenlechner, born in Innsbruck, has been working as a web developer for chemmedia AG, one of
Europe’s leading specialists in digital learning solutions and services, since 2017. During the six years she
spent studying and working in the USA, she met her husband. He wanted to do his master’s degree in Germany,
so they moved to Dresden. While looking for a new job, she became aware of chemmedia AG, which
had its then second office in the state capital. However, when she moved back to her hometown of Innsbruck
after her husband’s graduation, the question arose as to whether she could take her work with her, and she
got a clear answer from both herself and chemmedia AG. In our interview, Bettina Helgenlechner takes
stock of her experiences and tells us about cross-border remote working.
How is work organised in the company?
Work is distributed via a ticket system
and assigned directly by Customer
Support, Product Development and
Product Management. Sometimes,
however, the tickets are simply in the
pile, and we take them as soon as we
have capacity. Communication then
usually takes place via video meetings
or internal chat.
Doesn’t the distance sometimes have a
negative effect on your sense of belonging?
No, not really. After six years of working
remotely, I’m just used to it. But I could
imagine that it might be more difficult
for extroverts. However, the pandemic
also had a positive side effect in this respect:
because everyone was suddenly
WEITERE INFOS:
Chemmedia AG
chemnitz.jobs/chemmedia
Our international specialists
come from:
Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, the USA,
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Portugal
Applications in German or English to:
personal@chemmedia.de or directly via:
https://jobs.chemmedia.de/jobs
7
What about small talk in between tasks?
Asking what you’re having for lunch or
about the great new shirt your colleague
is wearing today?
You have to devote a little more attention
to small talk because it doesn’t
happen as spontaneously as it does
in the office. However, we do see each
other at the daily stand-up – even the
colleagues we don’t work with directly.
Once a week, we also have a team day
where the whole team works together
on a specific ticket or project via video
conference. We can also just chat about
things in between that might not be
directly related to work – just like you
would in the office. Social banter, so to
speak.
BETTINA HELGENLEHCNER
28

working remotely, we learnt to chat to
each other from time to time.
That leads perfectly into my next question:
what qualities do you think are
needed for remote working to work?
You need a bit of discipline and sufficient
intrinsic motivation; by that I
mean that you do the work because it
really interests you. And it’s definitely
an advantage if you’re more of an
introvert and don’t need to socialise
all day to feel satisfied. That’s not so
important for me. I work from home. Of
course, I could also go to a co-working
space if I wanted to socialise.
But can you ever switch off properly if
you are working from home?
I’ve actually never had any problems with
that. I close my laptop, and then I don’t
think about it any more – no more than
when I started working in the Dresden
office. I can separate them both quite
well – staying focused at work and then
it’s time to call it a day. I also like the fact
that I can organise my day more flexibly.
You can spread the housework out a bit
throughout the day, and you don’t always
have to do everything after work, so you
can make better use of the times when
you’re really focused.
Would you say that the future viability
of companies also depends on whether
they offer their employees remote
working?
I’m actually pretty sure of that. I think
many employees are interested in
whether they can work remotely – at
least a few days a week. Even before
the pandemic, there were always a
few colleagues working from home
because chemmedia AG has always
been very considerate of families with
children and employees who had a
particularly long journey to the office.
But now, after the pandemic, it’s an
exception for someone to actually be
working in the office every day. I’m
convinced that this is a more attractive
way of working.
Will your colleagues still see you at the
Christmas party in Chemnitz?
Definitely! I’ve already been to Chemnitz
twice this year for company
events, and I’m looking forward to
seeing everyone again.
Fotos: chemmedia
29

ANDREY AND MONA
Fotos: Dental Wings, Johannes Richter
“BETTER TO WORK IN
GERMANY THAN FIGHT
FOR PUTIN“
30

If you live in a peaceful country,
you can forget that things are not as
harmonious everywhere in the world
as they are in Germany.
Just 1,500 kilometres away, Ukraine
is fighting for its survival: since the
Russian war of aggression last year,
many Ukrainian families have fled to
Germany. But what is rarely mentioned
are the people in Russia who are
against the war and don’t want to be
used in Putin’s dreams of conquest.
Andrey is one such person. In September
2022, Putin ordered the
general mobilisation of his country.
This meant that men of fighting age
were to go to war against Ukraine.
The police were already at the house
of the then 49-year-old mechanical
engineer. Without further ado, he fled
to Kazakhstan to avoid serving in a
war he opposed.
In the past, Andrey had worked for
many Russian branches of German
companies, including BOSCH and
BASF. In exile, he wrote letters to German
friends. One recipient was Frank
Stockmann, the managing director of
the Chemnitz site of the Straumann
subsidiary DENTAL WINGS. Frank already
knew Andrey’s older daughter,
who was spending her year abroad in
Chemnitz and living with the Stockmann
family. It was clear to Frank that
he and his team had to help. So his
HR manager Madlen Lauterbach got
on the ball and took charge of organising
an accelerated skilled worker
procedure and a work visa. And their
efforts were rewarded: Andrey was
able to start at DENTAL WINGS as a
test engineer in January 2023. His
new employer paid for his further
training.
The fact that he no longer works in
his actual profession doesn’t bother
Andrey. “I enjoy the work, and I like
the atmosphere in the team,” explains
the family man. Having breakfast
each day with his friendly colleagues,
many of whom have foreign roots,
certainly helps.
Not just a professional
home in Chemnitz
One of them is Mona from Iran. She
came to Germany with her husband
in 2017. Mona is responsible for the
quality assurance of DENTAL WINGS’
medical software within the international
company. This means that, before
the software’s launch, she checks
which legal requirements it must
fulfil for the respective market and
documents precisely that the criteria
are met. As she works in an international
environment and the company
documentation is also in English,
integration was very easy for her. She
also learnt German to B2 level in just
six months.
Skilled workers like Mona with her
international professional experience
are in demand on the labour market.
While the authorities don’t always
make immigration easy, there are still
opportunities to gain a foothold. Companies
with international operations
such as DENTAL WINGS are happy
to welcome qualified immigrants, as
the Chemnitz site communicates with
other company locations all over the
world: in Canada, the USA and even
Brazil, to name just a few.
Russian engineer Andrey now feels at
home in Germany, as do his wife and
young son, who have joined him. He
doesn’t like the political situation in
his home country at all, which is why
he has made a new home here. He
has already bought a small house in
a suburb of Chemnitz. “But it never
would have worked without Madlen
and Frank,” says Andrey.
WEITERE INFOS:
Dental Wings GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/dental
Our nationalities:
Germany, Israel, Russia, France, Poland, India, Nigeria,
Turkey, Iran, Peru, China and Vietnam
Applications in German or English to:
hr.de@dental-wings.com
12
31

SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES
TOGETHER
E-commerce is a growing industry, including in Chemnitz.
There are several online shops in the area that
have experienced considerable success, and in specialised
niches at that. PIXXASS is one of them. The retail
brand of the Revolte Group’s e-commerce subsidiary
primarily sells board games and torches. Games are
sometimes tested by the team around the lunch table.
It’s an unusual product mix that pays off thanks to
many years of hard work. Revolte Campus, the company
behind the PIXXASS brand, also takes on other
tasks for the agency group, including selling successful
brands such as MOY beer on the web.
Mahshid stayed true to her dream
Fotos: Revolte GmbH / Stefan Lorse
32

E-commerce is more varied than some
people realise. Selecting and purchasing
products is just as much a part of the
job as photographing and editing the
product displays, and roles range from
order processing to handling customer
feedback. Employees can utilise their
creative streaks as well as their business
and technical skills, swapping the shop for
a cosy office.
So it’s no wonder that training in e-commerce
was a long-held dream for Mahshid.
The 23-year-old grew up in Iran and
came to Germany with her family back in
2015, graduating from secondary school
here in 2020. However, she dropped out
of her vocational baccalaureate and started
working in a different field.
Mahshid stayed true to her
dream
She had been interested in e-commerce
since her school days, as it was one of the
areas her career counsellor believed she
was suited to. However, the teams in the
region’s online shops are often too small
to provide the necessary resources for
a trainee position. After all, it takes time
to train young people, plus the cost of a
training licence.
In 2023, Mahshid contacted the employment
agency and joined a pre-vocational
training programme. She was encouraged
to go directly to the online shops in
the region and enquire about an apprenticeship.
One day, Mahshid was standing
in the corridor at Revolte. The bosses
didn’t think twice. Mahshid was able to get
a taste of the company very quickly, familiarising
herself with the various areas
of the Group, including its websites, print
media and campaigns. It quickly became
clear that Mahshid was a perfect fit for
the world of e-commerce.
Her current trainer Robert was impressed
by the 23-year-old from the outset.
When she successfully created a product
for the first time, Mahshid’s delight was
obvious. “You can teach a lot of things,
but you can't teach people to enjoy their
One of the first e-commerce
trainees in the region
work”, explains the 39-year-old e-commerce
professional. So Robert sat down
with his team to make a decision: could
they run a training programme for the
first time in the company’s 20-plus year
history? What would they need to bear
in mind? Would everyone want to be
involved?
One of the first e-commerce
trainees in the region
The result? Mahshid began her apprenticeship
as an e-commerce clerk in
October 2023, giving up her other job.
Her dream has now come true in a place
where training in this field is still a real rarity.
Robert spent several weeks at night
school to obtain his training licence and
appreciates the theory he learned. “At
one time I wanted to be a nursery school
teacher. By doing this, I can bring some of
my old career aspirations to the table and
learn something interesting.”
So Mahshid has made her mark and
her family and four siblings are proud of
her. Her vocational school is in Zwickau,
so she will have to commute there for a
few weeks at a time in the future. She is
already looking forward to this and to the
variety in her job. Further training in specialised
English is still to come, and next
year she will be attending a trade fair for
the first time. But she is already able to
complete tasks independently and is a
natural part of the team. “I look forward to
my work every day and am happy to have
received my dream training at Revolte
Campus.”
WEITERE INFOS:
Revolte GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/revolte
Nationalities in the company:
Germany, Sweden, Afghanistan, Iran
Applications in German or English to:
bewerbung@die-revolte.de
4
33

Fotos: Johannes Richter
IT’S WHAT THEY WANT TO
ACHIEVE THAT COUNTS, NOT
WHERE THEY COME FROM
In times of a shortage of skilled workers, companies are
faced with the difficult task of promoting their own young
talent and ensuring their training and qualification. In
the best-case scenario, there is someone in the company
who can inspire future trainees and employees with
enthusiasm for their daily work. This is especially true for
professions that seem less exciting at first glance, such as
the police service, pilot training or an apprenticeship as a
game designer. Petra Lüth is one such “door opener”. The
human resources manager is the first point of contact for
students and professionals who want to gain a foothold at
the SRS Audit-Group. What began in 1988 as a small law
firm in Cologne now offers comprehensive auditing and
consulting services at five locations across Germany –
including tax and management consulting. The SRS team
in Chemnitz has around 25 employees, four trainees, two
BA students and three student trainees. In our interview,
Petra Lüth reveals why it is difficult – but not impossible –
for professionals from abroad to succeed in this industry.
Her maxim: behind every application is a person who is
much more than a portfolio of certificates or a qualification
(that is not recognised in Germany)...
34

Hand on heart, Ms Lüth, how many of your
applicants have always had a childhood dream
of working in the tax sector when they
grew up?
(laughs) I have to admit it rarely happens.
That makes it all the more important for us
to share our enthusiasm for this profession
from an early stage and to dispel
any misconceptions. Of course, this is part
of diligent public relations work. We are
represented at trade fairs, take part in
open days, go to schools and give young
people the opportunity to get a taste of
the company through a work placement
at any time. Anyone who dares to experiment
and take a look behind the scenes
at our company will quickly realise how
exciting this field of work can be and that
we don’t just leaf through tax documents
in a quiet room. Thanks to our active work
with young people, we have been training
assistant tax consultants and office management
assistants in our company for
over 30 years. In addition, we are a training
partner for the vocational academies in
Dresden and Glauchau.
What makes the work so exciting in your
eyes?
First and foremost, it’s working with people
who come from a wide variety of industries
– from car mechanics to book authors,
from cabaret artists to corporate groups.
It’s important to have a good understanding
of figures and to be able to interpret
those figures in the context in which the
individual client operates. This is the foundation
of our consulting work. The increasing
digitalisation of our industry is also an
exciting process. And no one should shy
away from familiarising themselves with
the wording of the legislation. It changes
frequently, which is why our profession
never stands still.
Speaking of legislation, sometimes even we
Germans find it difficult to understand those
texts. I can imagine that they are an even
greater hurdle for people with a migration
background.
That’s right: it means that good German
language skills are the be-all and end-all.
For international skilled workers, further
training such as German language courses
is stipulated in their employment contract
and regulated in terms of remuneration.
On the other hand, we offer free English
lessons for all employees to minimise language
barriers. This is particularly important
in the context of increasing internationalisation.
Quite a few of our clients are
expanding abroad, for example. To support
such companies with overseas operations,
we work with Inpact International, an international
alliance of auditors. They know the
legal regulations in the country in question,
so they can support us.
That has got to be easier than bringing
international experts into the company...
Definitely. Nevertheless, we are open
to every professional from abroad who
wants to gain a foothold in our industry
and especially at SRS Audit. But unlike
in IT companies, for example, where you
can get very far with a good command of
English, it is much more difficult in the tax
sector because of the legal texts I mentioned.
Unfortunately, there have been some
applicants from abroad in the past who
ultimately failed because of the language
barrier.
On the other hand, have there also been
some positive examples?
Yes, a Ukrainian woman, who had previously
worked as an interpreter, became very
familiar with the subject matter as an office
manager and eventually completed an apprenticeship
as an assistant tax consultant.
She was even able to bring the exam forward
because of her existing qualifications.
An employee from Thailand, who moved to
Chemnitz for love, also worked really hard
to overcome the language barrier and
successfully complete her training with us.
I can only take my hat off to so much drive,
ambition and enjoyment in the work.
Are there any exceptions for trainees from
abroad, such as more time during exams?
Hardly any, sadly. A dictionary is allowed,
but there is still no extended writing time
in the exam. This is one area where I’d like
our country to move with the times a bit
more and recognise the need for international
professionals. The recognition of
training and qualifications is also an issue
in Germany. It sometimes makes it incredibly
difficult for companies to integrate
skilled workers from abroad into the local
labour market.
How does SRS Audit facilitate getting
started in the company for international
professionals?
Anyone starting their professional journey
with us can be sure that they’ll receive the
necessary support in all areas. We are
open to different religions and also take religious
traditions into account. Depending
on how far away their home country is, we
sometimes grant four weeks’ leave as a
single block so that they can spend a lot of
time with friends and family. It is important
that we always see the person first – no
matter where they come from, what the
grades are on their report card or what
qualifications they have. If they have the
right motivation, everybody can achieve
fulfilment in our company.
WEITERE INFOS:
SRS Audit GmbH
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft •
Steuerberatungsgesellschaft
chemnitz.jobs/srsaudit
Apply to:
bewerbung@srsaudit.de
Applications are welcome in German, English or Russian.
35

“EVERYONE KNOWS
EVERYONE HERE”
Fotos: Ernesto Uhlmann
36

Duc comes from Vietnam, Joey from
Iraq – and both have found a professional
home at SITEC. What else connects the
mechanical engineering graduate and the
former interpreter?
His full name is Ngyuen Viet Duc. “Duc”
means Germany in Vietnamese – but
the name is no coincidence. “My father
has many friends in Germany, and his
doctoral supervisor also comes from
here”, explains the younger Dr Nguyen.
When he was working at Hanoi University
in Vietnam, joining a German-
Vietnamese exchange programme
was an obvious choice. He obtained
his doctorate at Dresden University of
Technology in 2014, partly thanks to a
project with Chemitz-based firm SITEC.
He has been working there since 2014,
joining its Research & Development
department in 2018. He and two other
colleagues work with partners to develop
and optimise pioneering technologies,
such as laser material processing.
The fact that SITEC is able to keep
up with and actively shape the major
topics of our time is also down to Duc’s
department: fuel cells, battery recycling
and automation are just a few of
the many factors that play a major role
in the automotive industry and beyond.
The department is also involved in the
digitalisation of manufacturing and
solar cells.
important role in SITEC’s machine
room. He has had many jobs in his
life – he has worked as a hairdresser
and in the catering trade, and he was
an interpreter in the once booming
textile industry in Turkey. He now uses
his talent for communication when he
helps colleagues with limited language
skills to understand instructions and
operate the machines correctly. “It’s
important to learn German, because
you won’t get very far without it”, explains
the 44-year-old Turkman. As he
also speaks Turkish and Arabic, he can
be a real help to colleagues just arriving
from abroad. His openness and
warmth are appreciated by managers
and colleagues alike.
lot, although he didn't have the opportunities
for support that his children
have today. Duc used to dance too, and
also enjoys photography.
At SITEC, employees with international
experience are welcome in all of its
departments, from machine operation
to development. And the 250 or so
colleagues get to meet up regularly at
events like the Easter barbecue, the
summer party and the departmental
Christmas parties. “Everyone simply
knows everyone here, from the technicians
to the managing director”, says
Duc. And Joey adds “The atmosphere
here is just super nice.”
“Make or buy“
SITEC’s unique nature also gave Joey
his job. The company not only manufactures
large machines, but can also
make the products itself if customers
so wish. The “make or buy” concept
means that customers decide for
themselves whether they want to have
products mass-produced by SITEC, or
buy the machine and do it themselves.
Machine operator Joey plays an
A family employer for
family people
Joey and Duc are both family men.
Joey is proud of his older daughter,
who is studying acting and has already
performed for Dieter Bohlen on
“Deutschland sucht den Superstar”.
“She got four yeses!”, he says proudly.
He is also musical and used to dance a
WEITERE INFOS:
SITEC Industrietechnologie
GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/sitec
We have employed people of the
following nationalities:
Vietnamese, Iraqi, Afghan, Czech, Syrian, German
Applications in German or English to:
bewerbung@sitec-technology.de
6
37

INTERNATIONALITY DE-
SPITE THE CHALLENGES
Jihed Lazibi is a computer scientist, a
sought-after commodity on the labour
market, and yet, after arriving in Germany,
he initially trained as a nurse. Jihed’s
new professional home is SIGMA.
Foto: Johannes Richter
“There’s always someone
here I can ask.
It’s a bit like family.”
The IT service provider and its subsidiaries
with locations in Chemnitz and
Dresden operate in various fields of IT,
including IT security and infrastructure,
ERP software, embedded systems and
RFID/Auto-ID. Although Chemnitz University
of Technology offers computer
science programmes, the number of
graduates does not meet the demand.
Immigration is therefore essential in
the IT sector. Jihed studied information
technology in Tunisia, specialising in embedded
systems, and learned German
to level B2. He worked in the Tunisian IT
sector for a year and a half before an old
school friend recommended he come to
Germany and gain a professional foothold
here. In September 2022, he made
the leap, but instead of being welcomed,
he was met with bureaucratic hurdles.
Matthias from SIGMA was an early ray of
hope. The RFID/Auto-ID software developer
met Jihed in an Arabic café and was
quickly taken with the young man. What
followed was a year-long wait on the German
authorities until Jihed was finally
able to start at SIGMA in August 2023
and contribute his professional expertise
to the company.
Instead of quickly finding a suitable job
as an urgently needed specialist with
good German language skills, Jihed first
had to start a non-specialist training programme
in nursing to obtain a residence
38

permit. This is because foreign skilled
workers only have six months to find a
job before their temporary residence
permit expires.
Bureaucracy and a willingness
to help
But Jihed also received some guidance:
a friend helped him find accommodation
and his colleagues at SIGMA supported
him in obtaining the urgently needed
recognition of his Tunisian qualification.
Once all the documents were submitted
in March 2023, it took until July for
the Central Office for Foreign Education
(ZAB) to send its decision.
Fortunately, everyone at SIGMA was ready
to go. Everything was quickly finalised
contractually and Jihed was able to start
the very next month. “I feel welcome
because I’m not just an employee here”,
explains the 30-year-old Tunisian. He
appreciates the friendly atmosphere,
even if he still has a little difficulty with
how quickly everyone speaks. “For me,
challenges are always opportunities”, he
adds. He has learnt many new words in
a short amount of time, has been able to
get a flavour of all the departments, and
his colleague Arvid actively helps him.
Jihed is one of many international employees
at SIGMA. The IT company values
what people from different cultures and
regions bring to the table. From the many
languages in which they can speak to
their customers to the new perspectives
and approaches that make an international
team so successful. A collegial
atmosphere where everyone treats each
other as an equal is part of the recipe
for success. Team events such as the
summer and Christmas parties and participation
in sporting competitions also
contribute to rapid integration.
Jihed, for one, feels at home at SIGMA:
“There’s always someone here I can ask.
It’s a bit like family.”
WEITERE INFOS:
SIGMA Chemnitz GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/sigma
Our nationalities:
Germany, Iran, Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia, Tunisia
Applications in German or English to:
bewerbung@sigma-chemnitz.de
6
39

INTERNATIONALIZATION
2.0
Foto: Niles Simmons
40

What if the internationalization of
teams was no longer just a necessity
in the fight against the shortage of
skilled workers, but a multiplier from
which everyone involved could benefit
equally? And how much more motivated
and perhaps also more satisfied could
foreign employees be if their diverse
cultural backgrounds were no longer
just a challenge, but a valuable asset?
As an international machine tool
manufacturer with numerous service
locations on all continents, NILES-SIM-
MONS-HEGENSCHEIDT GmbH (NSH
Group for short) knows only too well
how enormous the potential of cultural
education is for opening up new markets.
Marketing manager Pierre Seidel
explains: “India, for example, is one of
the emerging markets that we can only
tap into if we supply more than just
machines there. We need to know the
culture. So if we succeed in establishing
a mechanical engineer with us, then
we also benefit from his cultural background
– and not just vice versa. For us,
it’s about exchange, helping each other
to become better established in the
other country.”
Integration within the company is correspondingly
extensive and unaffected:
joint activities, hikes, private leisure
groups, company runs, etc. At the NSH
Group, it is common practice for colleagues
to travel together. Nazhmiddin
Bakhridinov, originally
from Tajikistan, discovered
climbing this
way and regularly goes
climbing with the team
in Bohemian Switzerland.
But now that it’s
getting cold, he’s looking
forward to a group skiing
holiday: he estimates
that 30 to 40 people
will be joining them this
year, if colleagues bring
their partners and friends with them, as
they did recently.
„We have a lot of people who aren’t just
called ‘integration manager’ on paper,
but really embody it – perhaps because
they have traveled a lot themselves,
perhaps because they are often abroad
for the NSH Group. And then, of course,
there are also those who have studied in
Germany, speak very good English and
then offer integration from the professional
side,” says Seidel, explaining
how the company has so far managed
without traditional integration management
despite having 30 internationals.
His magic word for success: individuality.
„Our machines are highly individual.
When customers show us a workpiece
and ask for a technical solution, the
result is machines that are often only
available once in the world in such a
customer-specific design. And that’s
exactly how we see our internationals:
each person comes with their own biography
and their own problems, so we
can’t follow a rigid plan; we always need
personalized support.”
Nevertheless, Pierre Seidel is aware that
even an NSH Group with its progressive
integration policy has much more potential.
“Imagine if we could offer young
people a complete package. An apprenticeship
with guaranteed employment
including low-cost or perhaps even free
accommodation in the form of a young
shared flat with 360-degree support... I
imagine that the apprentices could cook
together, go out together, not be alone
and come to work as a team in the morning.”
He hopes to be able to implement
this vision in just one to three years – a
speed that, in his opinion, is mainly due
to the fact that the company is still family-run.
“In a large corporate structure,
we wouldn’t be able to implement things
so quickly.” If the plan succeeds, the NSH
Group could perhaps even be the first
company in Chemnitz to offer its trainees
such a comprehensive program.
WEITERE INFOS:
NSH TECHNOLOGY GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/nsh
Our nationalities:
Germany, Central and Southern Europe, Asia, America,
Russia, Africa and India
Applications in German or English to:
hr.nsi@shgroup.com
30
41

JUMPING IN AT THE
DEEP END
Ms Hofmann, what motivated you to take
the brave step of applying to become an
integration manager for 72 international
specialists?
The thought of our future! We will be
500,000 nursing staff short by 2035.
That’s why we’ve been focusing on
recruiting specialists from abroad for
ten years now. I think it’s very important
to offer support not just to those who
are just coming over, but also to those
who are already here to see how we can
grow together better. And that’s why I
said: „OK, I’ll jump in at the deep end!”
Where do you see the biggest challenges
right now?
Despite the B2 certification requirement,
it’s more the language barriers
that are challenging, especially here
in Saxony where most people speak a
dialect. Of course, German employees
are also required to speak more clearly,
perhaps choose a simpler language, or
label the devices they work with.
Dealing with the authorities is even
more difficult. The trainees who come to
us are only allowed to enter the country
when they start their training contract –
from the airport straight to the classroom,
so to speak. This means that we
can only deal with the authorities during
school hours. The residents’ register
office, health insurance, opening a bank
Having started out as the coordinator of a residential
centre for people with disabilities, Janet Hofmann
moved into the challenging role of integration coach
at Heim gGmbH in June 2023 – no easy task with
more than 50 international employees from over 25
nations to look after. She is happy to share an insight
into the measures she uses to make it easier for the
international staff to settle into the country and work,
but also speaks honestly about the hurdles she has to
overcome.
42

Fotos: Johannes Richter
themselves to decide whether they want
to make contact or not. After all, I don’t
want to patronise them – they are adults
after all. My main concern is to make
sure that the offer is there.
account, immigration office, it goes
on and on. Just imagine: you arrive,
perhaps from Africa or Asia, where the
structures are completely different,
move into a flat, don’t even know the local
transport system – it’s not easy when
everything is new all of a sudden. I would
at least like to pick them up and then
drive them back to the training centre
so that they don’t miss out on so much.
Are you taking any other measures to
support integration?
We are currently in the process of
drawing up a concept for integration
management. We are primarily focusing
on the three trainees who arrived from
Togo and Morocco in September, and
looking at where the biggest construction
sites are. We’ll then use this information
to develop concept and process
diagrams.
At the same time, I am endeavouring not
only to integrate the young people on a
professional level, but also to offer them
things that will help them feel at home
in Chemnitz so that they will hopefully
remain with us as permanent employees
after completing their training.
This starts with me asking them what
sports they like to do, for example, and
then looking for suitable clubs for them.
There are also plans to set up a Café
International in-house, where anyone
who is interested can come together to
practise German and talk about their
cultures. But that’s not easy, of course,
as we work in shifts.
We are also currently developing a
cycling proficiency course because
the trainees often arrive here without
a driving licence and our facilities are
scattered all over the city. They often
don’t dare to cycle because they don’t
know the German road traffic regulations.
We hope that the course will give
them a little more confidence.
I’m also working on a welcome pack
with the most important information for
them to read. When you are told a lot
in a foreign language, some information
always gets lost. Medical care, local
transport, waste separation – it’s all in
there.
And what’s the atmosphere like among
the employees?
Due to the great diversity, it is sometimes
difficult to build connections between
the international staff – in many
cases we only have a single person from
any one country. Of course, I still try
and ask employees if I can pass on their
contact details if another person from
their home country joins us. Ultimately,
however, I leave it up to the employees
How did you gain your knowledge for
your new role as integration manager so
quickly?
Further training courses in the field of
corporate integration management are
rather rare at the moment, with most
focusing on the integration of refugees.
That’s why I’ve read around a lot, especially
about the laws. There are constant
changes anyway, for example in immigration
law. You really have to stay on the
ball. I also do a lot of liaising with others
in similar roles. There is now a network
of company integration managers and
luckily, I have also found competent contacts
at the Immigration Advice Centre.
And of course it’s important to take part
in the online events that are organised
on the topic. You can also make valuable
contacts there.
And the success of Heim gGmbH’s longstanding
internationalisation strategy is
something to be proud of.
Definitely! We no longer have to actively
recruit at all as we receive enough applications.
As the organiser of the voluntary
service, we also receive many international
applications and quite a few of
the graduates stay with us afterwards to
start an apprenticeship.
WEITERE INFOS:
Heim gemeinnützige GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/heim
We have employed people of the
following nationalities:
72 nations
Applications in English or German to:
bewerbung@heimggmbh.de
72
43

“THE MOST IMPORTANT
THING IS NOT TO STOP
BEING CURIOUS.”
“KOMSA, they’re the ones who repair mobile phones.” True enough, but it doesn’t do
justice to the company’s portfolio. Eastern Germany’s largest family business
by turnover has established itself as a telecommunications wholesaler and
specialist for digital infrastructures. In a world where mobile living
and working is commonplace, this means bringing the necessary
technologies to where they are needed. Almost 1,200 men and
women ensure that people all over the world can communicate
and work digitally. Because “it’s here to stay”. KOMSA
CEO Pierre-Pascal Urbon is certain of this.
What also “won’t go away” is the international orientation of the
Hartmannsdorf-based company. Its merger with the British IT
service provider Westcoast has been a catalyst for markets,
partnerships and employees. Press spokeswoman Andrea Fiedler-Braunschweig
adds: “We have been living change and transformation
for thirty years. We have reinvented ourselves almost
every year. In all this time, we have always been caught between
what technology produces in terms of innovation and what our
customers demand and ultimately buy. If you want to be successful
in a field like this, you have to be constantly ready to change.”
OLENA AYARI
44
Inner attitude is crucial
A working environment that is anything but rigid requires an
appropriate mindset. What does it take to work, grow and develop
at KOMSA? Openness in terms of dynamism and innovation,
an open-minded nature and the ability to work in a team. All of
this characterises Olena Ayari. How she came to Saxony from
Ukraine is a story of motivation, strength and potential opportunities
within Europe. „ first came to Germany when I was ten years
old. I was allowed to stay with a host family for a week as part of
a school exchange programme. I was impressed by everything
– from the food to the waste separation. Because that still isn’t
really a thing in Ukraine today. In any case, I wanted to live in a
country like Germany. And I wondered why I was born in Kiev
Fotos: Leoan Haubner / KOMSA

and not here,” says the 38-year-old. So
impressed, she decides to learn German
at the Goethe-Institut in Kiev while
studying marketing. This fun comes at
a cost. Olena works for it. She uses her
German skills privately. Nothing more.
But she can’t let go of Germany. The
desire for change keeps popping up.
“It’s now or never,” she thought when
she was on parental leave with her second
child in 2018. From Kiev, she sends
unsolicited applications to various
companies in Saxony, on the recommendation
of her German brother-inlaw.
He, in turn, is firmly convinced that
“anything is possible” in Chemnitz and
that the city has real potential. Ayari
also sends her CV to KOMSA, but does
not know the company. “How could I?
VW, Siemens, Bayer, etc. These are the
brands that are local and well-known
in Ukraine,” she says, describing her
situation. “If you’re in a third country
like me and then get invited to a job
interview, it’s like winning the jackpot.
Because it’s really difficult to find
a job in the EU from abroad.” She is
convincing, receives her employment
contract and has to wait. Without a visa,
of course, there is no entry, no first day
of work. This bureaucratic hurdle tests
both sides’ patience. Meanwhile, Ayari is
sitting on packed suitcases, struggling
to get her diploma recognised and not
knowing when she will be able to move
to Hartmannsdorf without her husband
and children. The time will come in mid-
February 2019. She flies to Germany.
Three days later, she starts at KOMSA.
You can’t drink coffee together in English
in Saxony.
But you can in German.
„The first few days were really exhausting.
From one day to the next, I only
spoke German. Processing all the
information in another language... In the
evening, when I was lying in bed, the
sentences were still running round and
round in my head. And KOMSA is big. It
takes months to understand the structures,”
she recalls. What irritated and
impressed her at the same time was
the question: How are you? Colleagues
and managers keep asking her this. “In
Ukraine, nobody at work asked me how
I was doing. Why should that be of interest?
I’m here voluntarily; I can manage.
And if I was feeling bad, I wouldn’t say
so. At some point, I realised that I really
meant it.” She realises that people tick
differently in Germany and experiences
a small culture shock. “In Ukraine, what
counts is what expensive handbag you
have. You have to impress with your
appearance. Here, managers are completely
relaxed about wearing shoes
under 100 euros. It doesn’t matter what
iPhone you have. I was accepted for
who I am. What counts is how open and
hard-working you are. And whether you
can learn quickly and work well.” She
approaches her job at KOMSA with ambition,
discipline and courage, constantly
improving her German and familiarising
herself with the job. Her husband
and children join her after a good three
months; the family is finally complete
again. There are still a few hurdles to
overcome: driving licence from scratch,
recognition of her husband’s physiotherapy
diploma, waiting for the integration
course, etc. Olena Ayari is not discouraged.
On the contrary. Her motto is: Don’t
get scared. Keep going. Keep learning.
Don’t give up. Most things come with
experience and time.
Many different characters make a great,
multi-faceted whole
On the road to internationality, KOMSA
remains true to itself. There have never
been any special recruitment campaigns
and probably never will be. Recruitment
takes place via the internet, social media
channels, networks and by word of
mouth. What has changed over the years
is the time window in which you have
to react. “Speed is the be-all and end-all.
Today, we are the ones who introduce
ourselves to applicants. We have to show
what we are actually like. The diversity of
our employees can be a key reason for
choosing us. Different perspectives and
openness towards each other make us
richer and more considerate as a team.
Without these skills, we run the risk of
becoming rigid,” summarises Andrea
Fiedler-Braunschweig.
A perfect match then. For Olena Ayari
and the company.
WEITERE INFOS:
KOMSA AG
chemnitz.jobs/komsa
We have employed people of the
following nationalities:
Albania, China, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, New Zealand,
Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania, Syria, Czech Republic,
Ukraine, Hungary
Applications in German or English to:
jobs@komsa.com
15
45

I AM ONE IN 83 MILLION.
AND ONE IN 250,000.
Foto: Johannes Richter
4,000 EMPLOYEES, 26 OF-
FICES, THREE MUNICIPAL
ENTERPRISES:
what do the people who work in Chemnitz
City Council do? Manage land and
buildings? Issue building permits, registration
certificates, parking tickets
and birth certificates? Authorise social
assistance? Facilitate foreign nationals’
arrival in Germany?
The City is the second largest employer
in Chemnitz. Anyone who thinks that
only administrative staff and civil servants
work here is mistaken: lifeguards,
urban planners, doctors, educators,
road builders, gardeners – everyone is
helping to shape the present and the
future of Chemnitz. Immigrants from all
over the world have long been playing
their part in its development.
Maya Alkurdi is an honest, respectable
woman. Behind her quiet nature lies a
good dose of ambition, plenty of confidence
and an even temperament. Her
engaging nature is matched by a life of
escape, loss, courage and resistance to
the adversities of moving
to a foreign country. She
grew up in Syria, graduated
high school in Egypt and
studied English literature
in Damascus. For one year.
She was then selected and
recognised as a refugee by
the United Nations (UNHCR)
as part of a “resettlement
programme”. Within three
months, she had to abandon
everything in Syria and
leave the country. She came
to Chemnitz in 2015 at the
age of nineteen, where she
found her feet. In this interview,
she and her supervisor,
Martin Weinert (Social
Welfare Office, Accommoda-
46

tion Department), explain why a job with
the City was her biggest goal and how
she achieved it.
What languages do you speak?
Alkurdi: Arabic, English and German.
After I arrived here, it took six months
to get a place on an integration course.
Six months of waiting! Then I reached
level B1 within a year. That means you
can communicate quite well in German.
Then, in August 2016, I started an apprenticeship
as an office management
assistant.
From English literature to a commercial/
administrative job: why the change?
Alkurdi: Despite achieving very good
grades in high school, I was only recognised
as having a school leaving certificate
here. To resume my studies and be
authorised to do so, I would have had to
pass a few exams at the Studienkolleg
Sachsen in Leipzig. However, due to my
family ties to Chemnitz, moving was out
of the question. That’s why I decided on
the apprenticeship instead.
How did you end up at Chemnitz City
Council?
Alkurdi: I was a client of the social welfare
office myself. The idea of working
for the council came to me through an
acquaintance. Her tip gave me the idea
to apply. I wanted to be treated fairly. Be
at the same pay grade as my colleagues,
like all other Germans. I fought for
that; that was my big goal. I wanted to
seize the opportunity and accepted the
challenge.
It didn’t work right away, but after my
second attempt, I received the letter
saying “Welcome to the city administration.”
That was in July 2020. I then
moved to the social welfare office in August
2022 via various other offices and
workplaces. My boss made sure that I
had long-term prospects here.
What exactly is your area of responsibility?
Alkurdi: What exactly do I do? I draw up
notifications for people so that they are
officially registered and
then also receive money,
etc. Because nothing
works in Germany
without a registration.
Weinert: We are generally
responsible for
finding accommodation
for homeless people,
i.e. for asylum seekers
assigned to the city of
Chemnitz. But also for
German citizens who
are homeless and need
help. We provide them
with a place to sleep in
our housing project, for example in the
Nachtquartier.
You have been in Germany for eight
years now. Is there anything that still
impresses you?
You have been in Germany for eight
years now. Is there anything that still
impresses you?
Alkurdi: The system. Actually, that word
says it all. It doesn’t exist in Syria. There
you pay a lot of money to get things organised.
Here there are laws and rules;
they are adhered to. Sometimes they
are a bit much. But you have peace of
mind and know what is right and wrong.
Mr Weinert, what stumbling blocks do
you see in the integration of foreign
skilled workers?
Weinert: Language skills are the be-all
and end-all. In administration, the official
language is German. It is therefore essential
to be able to communicate well.
As far as our work is concerned, administrative
German can be a stumbling
block.
What have you learned from Ms Alkurdi?
Weinert: She represents an exemplary
career path in Germany. There are
probably not many people who manage
to make such a career for themselves
in such a short time. Starting out
in administration involves more than
just speaking German because of the
legalities and the administrative language.
She is incredibly ambitious. Out
of 17 employees in the department, Ms
Alkurdi is the only person with a migrant
background. We chose her because she
simply impressed us. With her knowledge,
her cheerful nature, her willingness,
her achievements and because she fits
into the team.
How does the City of Chemnitz sell itself
as an attractive employer?
Weinert: We are now in competition
with other administrations, institutions
and businesses. That is why we have
worked so hard on establishing our
employer brand. Our aim is to highlight
the benefits of a job in the public sector
both internally and externally. Among
other projects, there will be a completely
new online presence for the City of
Chemnitz soon, which will include a new
careers website, for example. This will be
advertised on all common social media
channels, job exchanges, specialised
media, etc.
Applications in German to:
karriere@stadt-chemnitz.de
WEITERE INFOS:
Stadt Chemnitz Hauptamt
chemnitz.jobs/stadtverwaltung
47

Foto: Klinikum Chemnitz
INTEGRATION WITH
HEART AND MIND
Broadly speaking, the integration of international skilled
workers has at least two levels: an external and an
internal one. On the outside, new arrivals with foreign
roots have to fight their way through a jungle of regulations
and legal provisions that are difficult or impossible
for them to understand on their own. What do I need
to bear in mind? Which contact points can I turn to for
help? Which forms do I have to submit, by when and
where? And where do I even find them in the first place?
On the other hand, there is the inner, human level,
which raises questions about how to integrate socially.
The feeling of being a stranger needs to be overcome.
And sometimes, when the feeling of homesickness is
simply overwhelming, a hug is needed.
48

Anyone who has ever spent some time
with Maria Süß and Heike Palm at Klinikum
Chemnitz gGmbH (Chemnitz Hospital) will
never get rid of the feeling that both levels
are brought together here. The team of two
looks after the international specialists at
the hospital. They know how to handle external
factors and internal attitudes to create
harmony. Which one of them is the pragmatic,
conscientious side for the external factors
becomes clear at the latest when Maria
Süß pulls out a folder: “All our international
skilled workers get one of these from me,”
she explains. “Experience has shown that
piles and piles of documents accumulate
during the integration process. It helps us
keep track of everything.” Heike Palm sees
people first and foremost, as she demonstrates
by calling them colleagues right from
the start. They’re not “the newbies” or “the
others”. “No, they’re people like you and me.
They all have their own history, their hopes,
and they often have their own baggage to
carry, too,” she says. It’s absolutely clear that
respect, tolerance and attentiveness are important
to her – not only between local and
international professionals, but also on the
part of the patients. “In Saxony, we still have
some catching up to do here. The process
of internationalisation in the field of nursing
professionals has been firmly embedded
in everyday working life in the old federal
states for a long time. It’s only just begun
here. We want to reach out to local people
and make it clear that it doesn’t matter
whether a carer is called Arndt or Mohammed.
Qualifications and expertise are what
count.” As a rule, international colleagues
have a lot to contribute, as almost all nursing
staff from the EU and other countries do
not complete an apprenticeship, but rather
a bachelor’s degree programme with an integrated
practical component. Only Germany
takes a different approach: anyone who
wants to become a carer here completes a
three-year
training
course.
However,
specialised
knowledge alone is not enough to create
acceptance. Communication plays a particularly
important role: “Developing German
language skills is extremely important – and
not just for dealing with patients. You can’t
make a home here with English alone,” says
Heike Palm, firmly convinced. This is where
the hospital’s one-year “adaptation courses”,
which were launched in 2022, come into
play. “They are held in German. The participants
discuss not only understanding what
is being said, but also knowing what is meant.”
A sound and wide-ranging understanding
of the language is important to prevent
misunderstandings in everyday working life
and beyond. Only after the adaptation year,
during which the participants also learn a lot
about the system, do they spend six months
familiarising themselves with a defined area
of work. This gives them a sense of security.
Of around 2,500 nursing staff in the hospital
network, a total of 111 have their roots in
other countries. There are even international
specialists in the “stand-in pool”, which
consists of 80 employees. This is remarkable,
as these employees “have to be even
quicker on the uptake,” explains Heike Palm.
“They have to constantly reorient themselves
at different workstations and get to grips
with their tasks as quickly as possible.” This
is a challenge even for local native speakers.
All things
QUALIFICATIONS AND
EXPERTISE ARE WHAT COUNT
considered,
you have to
take your
hat off to
all the international specialists who have
found their feet here. “The path in Germany
is extremely difficult, and we should
do everything we can to make sure these
colleagues stay with us. The social environment
is crucial here. Everyday racism
on the way to work, being stopped by the
police more frequently because they have
a different skin colour or bouncers refusing
them entry to the club doesn’t help. Sadly,
this has all happened before,” says Maria
Süß, who is responsible for a special tool as
part of the culture of welcome at Klinikum
Chemnitz – a weekly newsletter. “I regularly
send out tips on everyday life in Germany,
what traditions we have, what holidays we
celebrate and what makes us tick.” From
2024, a regulars’ table is also planned as an
opportunity for international specialists and
other staff members to exchange ideas. “We
want to know what we still need to work on in
terms of integration so that we can use this
knowledge to keep on improving.”
HEIKE PALM
MARIA SÜß
WEITERE INFOS:
Klinikum Chemnitz gGmbH
chemnitz.jobs/klinikum
We have employed people of the
following nationalities:
40 nations
Applications in German to:
m.suess@skc.de
40
49

TRUST WELDS PEOPLE TOGETHER
Foto: Ernesto Uhlmann
He can hardly believe it himself:
next April, Alex Quint will have
been with OMEGA Blechbearbeitung
Limbach-Oberfrohna AG for
20 years. The production foreman
in the assembly department originally
comes from Siberia. And he is
not the only specialist with international
roots at the Limbach-based
company. Almost a dozen nations –
from Russia to Kazakhstan, Poland,
Algeria, Syria, Afghanistan, Georgia
and Hungary – work together at
OMEGA. “And very successfully
too,” says CEO Ingolf Baum.
For more than 25 years, the name
OMEGA Blechbearbeitung has stood for
high-quality machine housing as well as
laser, bended and welded components.
OMEGA products can be found in plant
engineering as well as in mechanical
and apparatus engineering, container
and vehicle construction, medical
technology and machine tool construction.
Switch cabinets for the electrical
industry and an in-house production
line for medical cabinets, doctors’ cabinets
and hospital equipment round off
the product range. All of this requires a
strong team. “We have many international
employees who have been with us
for ten, 15 or 20 years,” says Baum. This
speaks for a good relationship between
employer and employee, but also between
colleagues themselves. And this
can be seen, for example, in the support
provided to foreign specialists when it
comes to finding accommodation or
dealing with the authorities. “If there
are language barriers at the beginning,
the employees help each other,” Baum
continues. This reduces inhibitions and
quickly conveys a feeling of acceptance.
Alex Quint reports on day-to-day production.
Over the last 20 years, it has
not been uncommon for employees not
to speak a word of German when they
start out. “But people want to integrate
and develop,” he says. After all, his company
is also a modern one that provides
incentives to persevere and make an effort.
And not just during working hours.
“We also organize celebrations, such
as a summer party where families are
invited, and a Christmas party. That kind
of thing brings people together,” says
Quint, whose wife also works at OMEGA.
She works in the secretarial department
and has also been happy at the company
for years.
The continuous growth of the team and
its expertise, combined with a strong
customer focus, has made OMEGA
Blechbearbeitung Limbach-Oberfrohna
AG a valued partner for customers all
over the world. “Our employees are the
most important factor in our success,”
says Ingolf Baum. The company is currently
looking primarily for welders and
fitters for permanent positions. Applications
can be sent to bewerbung@omega-blech.de
at any time. Apprenticeships
as metalworkers specializing in construction
technology are also available
for the 2024/2025 training year. There
are also internship opportunities to get
to know the Limbach-based company at
any time.
WEITERE INFOS:
OMEGA Blechbearbeitung
Limbach-Oberfrohna AG
chemnitz.jobs/omega
Our international specialists
come from:
Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Algeria, Syria, Afghanistan,
Georgia and Hungary
Applications in German or English to:
bewerbung@omega-blech.de
9
50

Fotos: Starrag Group
“NOBODY IS LEFT TO FEND FOR
THEMSELVES HERE”
Starrag GmbH is a company with a long history, but also with a great future
ahead of it. It has been manufacturing milling machines in Chemnitz for well
over a century, and today is part of the Starrag Group, a leading global supplier
of machining centres and technological manufacturing systems. Heckert
machines made in Chemnitz are renowned for their precision, reliability, and
high level of technical innovation, particularly in the production of automotive
and industrial parts. Every day, 460 employees ensure that the company continues
along this upward path of growth.
SAP consultant. Anyone interested in an
apprenticeship is also welcome to contact
Simone Pinarski or Kirsten Olomek.
One of them is Inhwan Choi. The 29-yearold
from South Korea has been working
for Starrag as a service technician
since the summer. “I was given a very
warm welcome, especially from the area
manager. He made sure that I was well
integrated into the team”, says Choi, who
has been living in Germany since 2017.
The trained precision mechanic wanted to
develop his technical skills in the machine
tool industry, which is how he became
aware of the company. “There were several
training courses to help him familiarise
himself with the job. Nobody is left to fend
for themselves here”, says HR Manager
Simone Pinarski. As well as Korea, Starrag
also employs skilled workers from China,
Russia, Syria and Afghanistan.
There are various steps that all new
employees go through when they join
Starrag. “We look at their individual
skills and knowledge”, explains Kirsten
Olomek from the Training and Development
department. Those who opt for a
job at the Chemnitz-based company are
also offered all kinds of extra benefits.
For example: 13 monthly salaries, an
employee stock option and profit-sharing
scheme, a childcare allowance, capital-forming
benefits, and birthday and
Christmas presents. In most areas, staff
are also offered flexible working hours to
help them achieve a better work/life balance.
Individual training opportunities, a
company health management programme
– which includes ergonomic workstations,
sports facilities and bicycle leasing
– plus a children’s Christmas party, round
off the benefits.
Starrag is currently looking for CNC milling
machine operators, service technicians,
industrial mechanics, and an in-house
WEITERE INFOS:
Starrag GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/starrag
Our international specialists
come from:
Germany, Korea, China, Russia, Syria and Afghanistan
Send applications in German or English to:
career.che@starrag.com
6
51

“WE MAKE THE WORLD
A LITTLE SAFER.”
“We started out with great ambitions and visions,
which we realised, occasionally overturned or simply
rethought, as is only natural” says Matthias Domes,
one of the founders of domeba GmbH, looking back
on the beginnings of the “classic garage start-up”.
Their ambition to set up an agency specialising in
web applications has grown into a company that can
rightly claim to save lives every day: domeba GmbH
is now one of the leading providers of compliance
management software and develops digital solutions
for occupational health and safety, quality assurance
and sustainability.
Modular software in 30 languages helps
companies from almost all sectors to
implement internal or legally prescribed
rules and objectives. domeba GmbH
marked two milestones in 2023: the
company celebrated its 25th anniversary,
and its employee headcount simultaneously
entered the three-digit range.
Test Engineer Robert Montell is one of
the new employees. The Finnish floorball
player is a guest player with the Floor
Fighters Chemnitz this season. Matthias
Domes: “Before the start of the new
season, we as a sponsor were informed
that the new guest player was looking
for a job at an IT company. He had just
completed his bachelor’s degree in programming.”
The successful application
process began immediately, and Robert
Montell has been a permanent member
of the “domebianers” team since mid-
October. Being international has been
on domeba’s agenda for some time, says
Matthias Domes, who prefers a “healthy
pace” when it comes to internationalisation.
“Cultural worlds collide [during
international encounters], which can be
enriching and challenging at the same
time. We need a workforce that has not
just been persuaded to accept this process,
but firmly believes in it. And that
takes time.” The best way to find out how
international specialists have settled in
at domeba and in Germany is for them
to tell us themselves:
Khaoula Bouguerra
Khaoula Bouguerra from Tunisia,
IT Application Development Trainee
Why did you decide to work in Germany,
and what expectations did you have?
First and foremost, it was for family
reasons, as my spouse works here. I also
wanted to take the opportunity to advance
my career and expand my CV. A
good work-life balance, career development
opportunities and a friendly, cooperative
team were some of the things
I expected to find. I also hoped to gain
intercultural experiences and improve
my language skills.
Did you encounter any particular challenges
or positive experiences?
My integration into the company has
been very positive. All the employees
here are very nice and co-operative,
which has made my experience of
working here very pleasant. In terms
of the local community, I’ve had a few
difficulties adjusting socially, but nothing
serious. I’m happy with my life here.
What advice would you give to other
international professionals?
Be open to new experiences. Accept cultural
differences and respect diversity.
Be patient and focus on your professional
development.
WEITERE INFOS:
domeba GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/domeba
Our international specialists
come from:
Germany, Colombia, Italy, Finland, India, Tunisia,
Kazakhstan and France
Applications in German or English to:
bewerbung@domeba.de
8
52

Fotos: Domeba
Luz Patricia Arévalo Pardo
Luz Patricia Arévalo Pardo from Colombia,
Test Engineer
In Germany since 2007
How was integration into the company and
the local community for you?
At the beginning, it’s important to find social
networks that already exist. Initially, I had the
support of my husband’s family and a group
of Latin American women who advised me
on many legal and cultural issues. However,
to avoid remaining isolated and to integrate
into the new culture, it’s essential to create
your own networks over time.
How welcome and accepted do you feel in
your new environment?
At domeba in particular, everyone has
made me feel part of the organisation, both
at work and socially. I feel respected and
considered when I suggest concepts or give
my opinions on professional topics. They let
me be myself, and they’re interested in my
culture and professional experiences.
What is the biggest difference between
Colombia and Germany?
We Colombians are happy with, and proud
of, what we do and who we are. Although the
Germans have achieved much more than
others can achieve, they aren’t able to be
proud of themselves. That’s something they
should change. I love both countries, but I
have planted my roots here, and that makes
Germany special.
Mariangela Giannattasio
Mariangela Giannattasio from Italy, International
Activities Coordinator
In Germany since 2020
How was integration into the company
and the local community for you?
At the beginning, my German language
skills weren’t good enough. That led
to some challenges. But the German
language is really beautiful and rich
in nuances. And by working here and
attending intensive German courses, I
was able to familiarise myself not only
with the language but also with the local
mentality. My colleagues have always
been helpful and interested in Italian
culture.
What helped you the most to find your
feet in your new work and social environment?
I firmly believe that the core values on
which a company is based have a significant
impact on the onboarding process
and everyday work. Having friendly and
patient colleagues naturally makes a big
difference. What I can recommend to
everyone as a way to expand their social
circle is to take part in German courses
and join sports groups.
Robert Montell
Robert Montell from Finland,
Test Engineer
In Germany since 2023
What cultural differences or similarities
are there between Finland and Germany?
Germans are generally much more
open-minded than Finns. Outside Finland,
this makes it much easier to enter
unfamiliar environments. There’s also a
clear difference in the way of thinking:
in Germany, there isn’t much thinking
and more doing, which gives me extra
motivation. People here also don’t try
to simply shirk their responsibilities, but
face up to them instead.
Do you have any advice or suggestions
for improving the culture of welcome in
Germany?
The locals should practise their English
more. This could improve communication
with international workers who speak
little or no German.
What tips would you give to other international
professionals facing a similar
career change?
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes,
be curious and take every opportunity
– whether it’s at work or in your free
time. In the beginning, everything will be
new and seem overwhelming, but that’s
completely fine.
53

THE PIONEERS OF
E-LEARNING
Let’s turn back time three
years: it’s the end of 2020
and the world is in the
middle of a pandemic. We
are standing in line at the
supermarket, waiting for an
employee to disinfect and
allocate us the next shopping
trolley. We spend our
free time going for walks
because Christmas markets,
concerts and other gatherings
of people no longer
exist. And we are learning
to appreciate the advantages
of the digital age.
Fotos: Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH
We meet via video link, spend more of
our working days in the home office or
use online learning platforms. During
this time, BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen
GmbH was booming, as the company
has spent 20 years working on the very
e-learning tools that were invaluable
during the pandemic. Even before the
first year of Covid-19, around 30,000 students
and teachers across Saxony were
already using BPS’s learning platform
OPAL, short for Online Platform for Academic
Teaching and Learning, on a daily
basis. “During the pandemic, the number
of users rose to up to 60,000 a day
– a level that has almost been maintained
to this day,” says managing director
Sven Morgner, who has been with the
company since 2001. The idea behind
OPAL: a comprehensive integration of
e-learning and new media in everyday
university life in Saxony. BPS Bildungsportal
Sachsen GmbH was founded at
the end of 2004 by a total of eleven
54

Saxon universities in order to establish
a Saxony-wide standard. Today, the
company’s ONYX examination software
also offers the option of creating tests,
exams and final examinations online
and conducting them securely and digitally
– another area where demand has
grown since Covid-19. The BLok training
record also provides trainers and trainees
with a digital report booklet. With
its innovative products, Bildungsportal
Sachsen now operates far beyond the
borders of the Free State of Saxony. To
ensure that everything runs smoothly
at the company, this reliable partner for
digitalization in education and training
brings together a total of 33 employees
from the fields of economics and social
sciences, IT and media management,
among others. They work in product
management, software development,
quality assurance, admin and customer
support. From time to time, international
specialists also embark on their educational
and career path at BPS GmbH.
Maria Kretz, management assistant, for
example, has Russian roots and understands
the challenges of being a native
speaker of another language. As a rule,
however, applicants rarely lack knowledge
of German: “Specialists from abroad
usually have a good level of German.
Most of them come from a university
background and have already settled
in well in Germany before they apply to
us.” This is necessary, as the day-to-day
work mainly takes place in German. To
ensure that new colleagues are “taken
on board” from the outset, they are
supported by experienced employees
during the initial phase. “Of course, this
applies to all applicants regardless of
their origin,” says Sven Morgner. Further
support is provided by the works
council, which is an important point of
contact in all matters. For example, the
employee representatives recently supported
a colleague from Kyrgyzstan who
had already been working at the company
while studying at Zwickau University
of Applied Sciences. The boss summarises:
“Basically, geographical roots are
not a deciding factor for us. What interests
us are professional qualifications
and what makes someone tick.” And how
exactly does someone have to tick to be
shortlisted at BPS? Morgner laughs, but
then paints a surprisingly clear picture
of future colleagues: “You have to have a
good dose of pragmatism and, above all,
enjoy our work. We work a lot as a team,
which is why a certain level of communication
skills is an advantage. If you also
have good social skills, you should get in
touch with us today.”
WEITERE INFOS:
BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen
GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/bps
Our employees currently
come from:
Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia
Applications in German or English to:
bewerbung@bps-system.de
3
55

INSIDER TIP:
LEARN GERMAN WITH
FOLK SONGS
Fotos: Intenta
It crunches softly when you bite into it. Waferthin
sheets of pastry melt in your mouth, then
come the nuts and the sugar shock. Because
the magnificent oriental dessert baklava is
one thing above all: very sweet.
Why are we drifting into the world of
food at this point in a magazine with
company profiles? Quite simply because
at Intenta GmbH it is not uncommon
for the boss to bring some of the Syrian
specialities from his home country
into the office. Hang on a minute, don’t
those pastries come from Turkey? No,
the Turkish national pastry originally
comes from Syria and was “Turkified”
in the Ottoman Empire. CEO Dr Basel
Fardi insists on this correction with a
wink. At Intenta, integration starts on
56

the management floor: “The topic is
embedded in our company DNA, so to
speak,” laughs HR officer Stephanie
Blönau, one of almost 70 employees in
the entire Intenta universe. This universe
stretches from Chemnitz via Hamburg
to Aachen and is home to a wide
range of expertise in software and
hardware development. The Software
Engineering Department in Hamburg
specialises in areas such as traditional
application development, automotive
Stephanie Blönau. Nevertheless, the
company attaches great importance
to gradually improving language skills
over time. “Because at some point work
is over, and you’re on your own again.
Without German language skills, integration
into society is scarcely possible.
You can’t rely on everyone speaking
English, even for small everyday things
like dealing with the authorities, visiting
the doctor or doing the weekend
shopping. Communication on an equal
“small city” of Chemnitz with its abundance
of nature. This is also thanks to
the people who have accompanied him
over the years: “From fellow students
to my current colleagues, I’ve always
had friendly and helpful people around
me. That makes integration so much
easier.” At some point, the newcomers
to the Intenta family should feel just
as if they were at home. Stephanie
Blönau: “Of course, this only works if
you take them out of their ‘community’,
and they get to know the country and
its people better through team events.
We make sure that integration is not
a one-way street. This means that we
share typical German customs, too,
such as group trips to the Christmas
market. On the other hand, we also
adapt to the cultural customs of the
countries represented at team events,
for example by taking cultural and
religious specificities into account with
the catering.” Jaroslav Dousa advises
all new arrivals who want to gain a professional
foothold in Germany to not
just sit at home, but to immerse themselves
in cultural life. His insider tip for
learning the language: “German folk
songs,” smiles the passionate accordion
player. “In the early days, they were
my best language lessons, even if they
weren’t always popular with everyone
around me.”
Software developer Jaroslav Dousa and personnel officer Stephanie Blönau
software and exciting new AI algorithms.
The development, production
and sale of intelligent, camera-based
sensor systems for recognising people
is based in Chemnitz, and so, too, is the
Group’s administration, which focuses
on image processing. Across all the
companies in the Group, a total of 20
per cent of employees have foreign
roots. “This is due to the fact that software
development is a highly suitable
field for international specialists with a
limited knowledge of German,” explains
footing is also essential to overcome
cultural differences,” says Jaroslav
Dousa. The software developer learnt
this 20 years ago. At that time, his
home country, the Czech Republic,
had just become a member of the
European Union. A semester abroad at
Chemnitz University of Technology was
to seal his career path in Germany. “It
could have also been the UK,” says Jaroslav
Dousa. “But Saxony’s proximity
to my home country was the deciding
factor.” He has since embraced the
WEITERE INFOS:
Intenta GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/intenta
Our skilled workers come from:
Germany, the Czech Republic, Syria and Lebanon
Applications in German or English to:
karriere@intenta.de
4
57

FROM A SPANIARD WHO
TOOK HEART AND GAINED A
FOOTHOLD IN CHEMNITZ
Fotos: Ernesto Uhlmann
58

“We bridge the gap between science
and industry, so we serve as a research
partner for SMEs. This means that our
scientific staff use their expertise to
develop application-orientated and industry-oriented
solutions for small and
medium-sized enterprises.” So Bianka
Albrecht introduces the Institut Chemnitzer
Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e. V.,
or ICM for short. The non-profit research
organisation focuses on regional project
partners; international projects are only
worked on selectively. The approximately
80 employees are primarily active
in Central Germany, meaning that their
expertise benefits both the economy
and the university landscape in Saxony
and Thuringia.
However, the ICM does not “only” work
on innovative solutions in mechanical
engineering. It also builds bridges
between people, their home countries
and their values, including an intercultural
working atmosphere. The language
barrier, however, poses daily challenges.
As a result of various aspects, there
is a mix of nationalities in the teams.
This situation is not so easy to master.
Communication with partners is primarily
in German. Project and funding
applications must necessarily be written
in German and formulated in a generally
understandable, scientific way. Even
for native speakers, this is a complex
task. Writing specialised articles, interim
and final reports is often difficult even
for German students, let alone those
working in German as a foreign language.
The institution relies on the students;
they bring fresh ideas to the teams.
Everyone benefits from their thoughts
and innovative approaches.
On the other hand, Chemnitz offers
certain study conditions that attract
young people from all over the world. A
bachelor’s degree without basic German
language skills? Not an issue. English is
the language of study, even at Chemnitz
University of Technology. What is an
advantage for students – from China or
India, for example – proves to be rather
difficult in terms of recruitment, staff
retention and their roots here in the region.
After all, anyone who dares to take
the step of moving to another country
to study is flexible in their choice of job
and place of residence. So it’s a complex
matter.
This makes Álvaro Oteros Pérez’s career
all the more interesting. The 29-year-old
comes from north-east Spain
– Catalonia, to be precise. He grew up in
the small town of Olot, which is surrounded
by (inactive) volcanoes. An idyllic
corner of the world, but unfortunately
with few future prospects for young
people. In order to create prospects, the
European Union is counteracting this
with support programmes, for example.
Integration through exchange is one
such instrument. Oteros Pérez came to
the ICM via a company internship abroad.
After eight weeks, he knew he wanted
to stay in Germany. Today, he is part
of the Information and Communication
Technology team and programs web
and database applications. His expertise
is put to use in the MINTsportRegion
project, which aims to get children and
teenagers interested in maths, IT, science
and technology outside of school.
The app for one of ICM’s latest in-house
developments – the Innvelo scooter,
an electric cargo scooter – also bears
his signature. When asked whether he
has arrived, he replies: “I wanted to
experience working in another country
and learn something new. So I took this
opportunity. I stayed at the ICM because
the team spirit is good. The work
content is exciting. We have breakfast
together every day; no one eats alone
at lunchtime either. Sometimes we have
cake and occasionally play skat. And
Chemnitz is the right size for me, not too
big and not too small. Everything is well
connected and accessible.”
Álvaro is an example of successful integration
and a valuable employee at the
ICM. Intercultural work can succeed. We
would like to see more people follow in
his footsteps.
WEITERE INFOS:
ICM - Institut Chemnitzer Maschinen-
und Anlagenbau e.V.
chemnitz.jobs/icm
Our international specialists
come from:
Germany, Iran, India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Spain, Russia
Applications in German and English to:
personal@icm-chemnitz.de
8
59

Group structures can make perfect
sense for a company – for example, to
spread out the economic risk, to optimise
production processes or to separate
operational and administrative parts of
the business. However, factors such as
flexibility and speed often suffer in these
environments. “Unfortunately, these
are precisely the demands the market
places on technological developments”,
says Karsten Schulze. He is one of
FDTech’s five founders, all of whom had
previously worked in structures like
this within the automotive industry.
Until 2017, that is, when they created a
company that aligned with their requirements
for adaptable further development
in the field of mobility. Their vision:
self-determined mobility for everyone.
Anytime, anywhere. Today, the company
specialises in automated driving,
devising processes, methods and tools
and developing algorithms for automated
driving functions. FDTech is just as
flexible as it is in its core business when
it comes to recruiting qualified personnel.
Just six years in, it already has 175
employees, including 25 students and
trainees on dual training programmes.
Thirty of them have international roots,
covering a total of 14 different nationalities.
And the upward trend is continuing.
Schulze sees an advantage in the
international specialists’ high level of
motivation. “It starts with training and
extends to the energy they put into
their everyday working lives.” People
with roots in other cultures are often
highly educated and highly motivated.
“Many people in this country could take
Fotos: Ernesto Uhlmann
a leaf out of their book”, says Schulze.
Now, you might think that FDTech
operates in an industry where international
specialists can rest on their
laurels somewhat and communicate
largely in English. “Not at all”, replies
Schulze. “Of course we are bilingual in
the company, but a good knowledge
of German is a must for our staff with
international roots. In our customer-facing
environment, most meetings are
held in German. And you also need to
be able to communicate well in your
life outside of work.” FDTech provides
support in the form of German courses
with a local service provider, among
other things. Saba Abdollahi adds that
the company is also on hand to help
with finding accommodation, getting
visas and naturalisation. The 33-yearold
Iranian completed her degree in
Biomedical Engineering at Chemnitz
University of Technology and joined the
FDTech team at the start of 2020. Germany
was her first choice, followed by
Australia and Canada. “Order, security,
the quality of the degree programme
and, above all, the country’s democratic
values were the deciding factors
in the end”, she says. But her start in
Germany was anything but easy. “To
open a bank account, you need confirmation
from the immigration office. This
requires a registration certificate, which
in turn requires an address. However,
you need a bank account to get a flat
– and the cycle starts all over again”,
says Saba, who would like to see better
organisational support for international
skilled workers. “It really hurts when
you realise how high the demand for
skilled workers from abroad is and how
INTEGRATION IS NOT
A ONE-WAY STREET
60

poor Germany is at welcoming them.”
The months-long struggle to obtain
a visitor's visa for her parents is one
example. “We skilled workers from abroad
are not machines. We are people
who want their parents to be present
at important events like weddings and
births.” Despite all the hurdles, she
now describes Germany as her second
home. “When I return here from holidays,
I feel at home. I’m grateful because
I’ve been able to evolve and develop
the way that I want to here.” Ary Frigeri
from Brazil was also motivated by the
search for a better quality of life. The
28-year-old software developer wanted
to work in a welcoming and pluralistic
environment in which he could openly
share his experiences. “However, this
step requires patience. There’s a lot of
paperwork to do in the first few months.
At the same time, you have to create a
new routine for yourself – at work and
at home.” He had less difficulty adapting
to the German habit of making an appointment
for almost everything, even for
“smaller” social activities. “Punctuality
goes hand in hand with appointments.
In Brazil, on the other hand, it’s standard
to be late for social activities.” Ary
also quickly felt welcome in his new working
environment. “My colleagues were
very interested in my culture right from
the start and wanted to know more
about the food, cities and Brazilian
customs.” This culture of togetherness
– regardless of background – is firmly
anchored in the company philosophy,
explains Schulze. Anyone who lacks
respect and tolerance has no place in
the company, he says. “Of course, this
applies to both sides – to our German
workforce as well as our international
specialists.” Saba adds: “Integration is
a two-way street. Anyone who wants to
gain a foothold here should respect the
country’s values and, ideally, appreciate
them. On the other hand, successful
integration also requires the help of
German society. In a perfect world, both
sides should approach each other with
respect and work together.” To enable
both sides to get to know each other
outside the working environment at
FDTech, the company regularly organises
barbecue afternoons, games evenings
and participation in various public
events. Families and partners also come
along to the annual company anniversary
party. Schulze: “We promote these
events in the interests of cultural education.
But it's not compulsory, otherwise
it wouldn't be authentic.”
WEITERE INFOS:
FDTech GmbH
chemnitz.jobs/fdtech
Our international specialists
come from :
Germany, India, Italy, Brazil, China, Pakistan, Syria, Czech
Republic, Cameroon,
Poland, India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine
Applications in German or English to:
apply@fdtech.de
15
61

INNOVATION MEETS
INTERNATIONALITY
Developing intelligent IT solutions and consulting
approaches, having scope for ideas and experiencing
teamwork in a spirit of partnership. If you want all this
and more, the msg group is the place for you. The international
company, which works in IT consulting and
software development, offers challenging and varied
tasks. The company has been on the market for over
40 years and has 170 employees on site in Chemnitz.
Ingo Gringer has been with the company for 25 years.
As the current site manager, he is joined by numerous
colleagues who have been with msg for decades. “There
is no hierarchical atmosphere here; everything is open,
cooperative and always challenging due to project business
and technological change,” says Gringer.
Fotos: Ernesto Uhlmann, privat
Nagima Mendigulova
The company thrives on innovation and
internationality. In addition to Germany,
employees also hail from China, Russia,
Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and Turkey. The
foundations for successful collaboration
are often laid during studies: strong
collaborations with Chemnitz University
of Technology, Zwickau University of Applied
Sciences and Mittweida University
of Applied Sciences, resulting in ongoing
research projects with students from all
over the world, pay dividends.
This is exactly how Iuliana Schreiber
came to msg. Born in St. Petersburg,
she has been living in Germany since
2015. In the third semester of her
master’s degree in computer science at
Chemnitz University of Technology, she
was thinking about where she should
complete her mandatory internship.
With this in mind, she attended a lecture
series on the industrial application of
computer science. The event gave her
and her fellow students an insight into
the IT landscape in Chemnitz. “One of
the companies was msg, and I still re-
62

Iuliana Schreiber
member the presentation by Ingo Gringer
on the topic of digitalization, which
impressed me. What particularly stood
out for me was the fact that the introduction
of digitalization has significantly
reduced the processing time for clerks.
That’s what prompted me to apply
directly to msg,” says Schreiber. She has
never regretted this decision. She describes
the working atmosphere at msg
as extremely supportive and collaborative.
“From the very first day as an intern
at msg, I felt like part of the team. I was
given intensive induction and support
and even now I always find someone to
help me with problems straight away,”
says the 30-year-old. Her company
attaches great importance to promoting
a diverse and inclusive working environment
that offers space for different perspectives
and backgrounds. In addition,
msg regularly organizes joint celebrations
and events that allow employees to
get to know each other better, not only
professionally but also personally, and
to build a strong, supportive community.
Iuliana Schreiber gives international
specialists a clear recommendation to
apply to msg.
Her colleague Nagima Mendigulova
feels the same way. She comes from
the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan
and has been living in Germany
since 2020. She was looking for a
suitable job after her studies and found
msg on LinkedIn. “What I particularly
liked about the msg job offer were
the good working conditions and the
company values such as ‘people first’
and ‘diversity & variety’,” says Mendigulova.
She works at the company as
an IT consultant and finds the working
atmosphere friendly and supportive. If
you need help, you can always turn to a
colleague. “I was impressed by the flat
hierarchy and the ‘you culture’, because
these are rare in my home country,”
says the 26-year-old. All employees
also go on various training courses
when they start work. This onboarding
really helps to understand the important
topics for working at msg. “For
example, I learned a lot about insurance
and brushed up on some IT skills.
It was also very important for me that
msg was understanding about my visa
matters,” Mendigulova remarks.
In the more than two decades since the
site was founded, the employees have
achieved a great deal. msg is not only a
reliable employer, but also plays a key
role in the lives of its employees and
their families. It is particularly important
to msg to extend its responsibility
beyond the business world and it greatly
values being part of the community in
Chemnitz.
WEITERE INFOS:
msg systems AG
chemnitz.jobs/msg
Our international specialists
come from:
Germany, China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Turkey
Applications in German or English to:
msg.group/chemnitz
6
63

Foto: Ernesto Uhlmann
INTEGRATION DURING
NURSING TRAINING
64

Hardly any other sector reflects Germany’s shortage
of skilled labour to the extent that nursing
does. There will be a deficit of up to 120,000 qualified
nursing assistants and carers in Saxony alone
in the coming years. The Federal Government’s
response has been to reorganise training structures.
The generalised nursing training programme
introduced at the beginning of 2020 now combines
the once separate areas of paediatric, nursing
and geriatric care. The government wanted this
reorganisation to increase the number of trainees
by ten per cent by 2023. Instead, it actually fell by
7 per cent nationwide in 2022 compared to the
previous year (Saxony: down 2 per cent).
“The fact that a total of nine years
of training experience is now being
crammed into three can be taken many
different ways”, says Jörg Ahner diplomatically.
However, a failure rate of around
20 per cent speaks for itself. Ahner is
the director of the Rembrandtstraße
nursing home for the elderly, one of the
many facilities run by the ASB (Workers’
Samaritan Federation) in Chemnitz
and the surrounding area. In addition
to providing care for the elderly across
three nursing homes in Chemnitz and
Burgstädt, the association also has
involvement in outpatient care services,
a residential care home for people with
severe physical disabilities, and rescue
services – from emergency rescue to
disaster management. The organisation
currently has 630 employees and 46
trainees, with people from 17 countries
working across the facilities, from the
laundry to the nursing homes. This impressive
number reflects the fact that
the ASB started looking at international
skilled workers at an early stage: “In
2010, it was not yet an issue in the care
sector, but it was definitely on our minds
by 2013. That was when it slowly became
apparent that many expert predictions
would come to fruition”, says Ahner.
To mitigate the shortage of skilled
workers, the ASB has been working with
BIP Chemnitz, the Berufliches Schulzentrum
für Gesundheit und Sozialwesen
(Vocational School Centre for Health
and Social Services) at the Markthalle,
and Medicampus Chemnitz since 2014.
The F&U gGmbH facility started training
young Vietnamese people to become
nurses in the same year. The practical
portion of the training is completed
with the local ASB branch, among other
organisations, where many of the trainees
also gain a foothold in permanent
employment after their training. “To
make integration easier, we regularly
organise trainee events. There are also
team building activities and team days
that can be organised by the individual
teams”, explains Katharina Busch, Central
Practice Instructor. To get students
in Germany interested in training in the
care sector at an early age, she partners
with schools, attends training fairs
and is active on relevant social media
channels. “However, most applicants still
find their way to us through recommendations
from friends or acquaintances.”
Thi Nhung Pham was one of those to become
aware of the career opportunities
at ASB through a tip from a friend. She
came to Germany in 2014 and completed
her nursing training in 2018. She
had previously undertaken a three-year
pharmacy apprenticeship in Vietnam
before working in a pharmacy there for
very little pay. “That wasn’t my future.
I wanted a better life”, recalls the now
31-year-old. The step into a completely
new environment was not easy for her,
and the biggest hurdle was the German
language. After all, a good knowledge
of German is extremely important for
carers as it enables them to communicate
well with people in need of care
or receiving inpatient treatment. With
good German language skills, carers
from abroad can support patients and
give them confidence and a sense of
security. In Saxony, language skills at
level B2 are a prerequisite for taking
up a position in the medical or nursing
sector. However, the German language
is not the only hurdle that needs to be
overcome in care facilities. As Ahner
explains: “In addition to the staff, our
care home residents, too, need to be
involved in the integration of international
specialists. This is a task that we take
very seriously, as different cultures and
ways of thinking come together here.”
In the event of problems, an integration
officer is always ready to listen to the
200 or so employees. Thi Nhung Pham’s
advice to skilled workers from abroad?
“Follow your path, be diligent and learn
German. Then many opportunities will
be open to you.”
WEITERE INFOS:
Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund
Ortsverband Chemnitz und
Umgebung e.V.
chemnitz.jobs/asb
Our international specialists
come from:
Germany, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Eritrea, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Poland,
Russian Federation, Syria, Czech Republic, Ukraine,
Venezuela, Vietnam
Applications in German or English to:
bewerbung@asb-ov-chemnitz.de
18
65

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овать, Καλώς ορίσατε, Hoş geldin
обредојдовте, Sveiki atvykę, Laipni lūdzam, Tere tulemas
lutem, Chào mng, Selamat datang, Maligayang pagdating, A
kwemukela, Ndiyanithanda, E ku abo, Nnabata, Soo dhaw
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ast, Velkomin(n), Fàilte, Croeso, Weelcume, Bonvenon, Sa
, Aloha, Haere mai, Afio mai, Malo e lelei, Ni sa bula, Ka
hawow, Welcome, Bienvenido/a, Bienvenue, Willkommen, B
о пожаловать, Καλώς ορίσατε, Hoş geldiniz, Üdvözöljük, W
se vini, Добредојдовте, Sveiki atvykę, Laipni lūdzam, Tere
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enuto/a, Bem-vindo/a, Welkom, Välkommen, Tervetuloa, До
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mast, Velkomin(n), Fàilte, Croeso, Weelcume, Bonvenon, S
ing, Aloha, Haere mai, Afio mai, Malo e lelei, Ni sa bula, K
dhawow, Welcome, Bienvenido/a, Bienvenue, Willkommen
бро пожаловать, Καλώς ορίσατε, Hoş geldiniz, Üdvözöljük
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lve, Salutem, Chào mng, Selamat datang, Maligayang pagd
u, Ngiyakwemukela, Ndiyanithanda, E ku abo, Nnabata, S
nvenuto/a, Bem-vindo/a, Welkom, Välkommen, Tervetuloa,
taj, Vítejte, Vitajte, Dobrodošli, Добре дошли, Bun venit, M
omin(n), Fàilte, Croeso, Weelcume, Bonvenon, S
lelei, Ni sa bula, Karibu
66
chemnitz-zieht-an.de
chemnitz.jobs

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ow, Welcome, Bienvenido/a, Bienvenue, Willkomm
пожаловать, Καλώς ορίσατε, Hoş geldiniz, Üdvözöljük, Wie
vini, Добредојдовте, Sveiki atvykę, Laipni lūdzam, Tere
lve, Salutem, Chào mng, Selamat datang, Maligayang pag
ribu, Ngiyakwemukela, Ndiyanithanda, E ku abo, Nnabata
envenuto/a, Bem-vindo/a, Welkom, Välkommen,Tervetuloa
itaj, Vítejte, Vitajte, Dobrodošli, Добре дошли, Bun venit
tulemast, Velkomin(n), Fàilte, Croeso, Weelcume,Bonvenon
ing, Aloha, Haere mai, Afio mai, Malo e lelei, Ni sa bula, Ka
dhawow, Welcome, Bienvenido/a, Bienvenue, Willkommen
бро пожаловать, Καλώς ορίσατε, Hoş geldiniz, Üdvözöljük
ë se vini, Добредојдовте, Sveiki atvykę, Laipni lūdzam, Ter
alve, Salutem, Chào mng, Selamat datang, Maligayang pag
aribu, Ngiyakwemukela, Ndiyanithanda, E ku abo, Nnabat
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Witaj, Vítejte, Vitajte, Dobrodošli, Добре дошли, Bun ven
tulemast, Velkomin(n), Fàilte, Croeso, Weelcume, Bonveno
ting, Aloha, Haere mai, Afio mai, Malo e lelei, Ni sa bula, K
o dhawow, Welcome, Bienvenido/a, Bienvenue, Willkomme
обро пожаловать, Καλώς ορίσατε, Hoş geldiniz, Üdvözöljü
rë se vini, Добредојдовте, Sveiki atvykę, Laipni lūdzam, Te
alve, Salutem, Chào mng, Selamat datang, Maligayang pa
aribu, Ngiyakwemukela, Ndiyanithanda, E ku abo, Nnaba
, Benvenuto/a, Bem-vindo/a, Welkom, Välkommen, Tervetul
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e tulemast, Velkomin(n), Fàilte, Croeso, Weelcume, Bonven
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oo dhawow, Welcome, Bienvenido/a, Bienvenue, Willkomm
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non, Sa
67