World of HR: Germany aims to attract skilled workers with Opportunity Card visa

Germany has 1.57 million job openings and a working-age population that’s expected to drop by at least 2% by 2045.

But thanks to a program called Chancenkarte (or Opportunity Card), German employers in industries including IT, engineering, and healthcare could soon have access to a larger swath of qualified job applicants.

The program, which began on June 1, allows non-European workers to live in Germany for up to a year while they look for a job, EuroNews reported. They will be allowed to work part-time and take on trial jobs, which allow employers and workers to test each other out for up to two weeks.

Obtaining a card won’t necessarily be a walk in the park (or a Spaziergang). Germany requires applicants to have completed skills training or have a relevant college degree. They must also have at least €12,000 and a certain number of points under the German system, earned based on factors including education, skills, language proficiency, and years of work experience.

Germany intends the program to attract skilled workers who can fill the roughly 400,000 positions needed each year to address its shortages. Other benefits may include easier pathways to hiring, the Chancenkarte site said.

Not everyone is convinced that the program will succeed, though. The country has seen a large influx of asylum seekers in recent years, and some Germans don’t want more immigration. Instead, some employers are investing in training that will prepare current workers for skills they may need in the future, while the government is looking into creating new incentives to keep people in the workforce longer.