German at work

German is one of the ten most widely-spoken languages in the world. It is also a major language of trade and commerce in Central and Eastern Europe. While English is widespread in many industries and in science and academia in Germany, you won’t get far in many careers if you can’t speak any German at all. German skills are particularly important wherever you come into direct contact with customers. They are also vital for you and your colleagues to understand each other.

“Employers value the high levels of motivation of skilled workers who have migrated to Germany,” says Dr Martin Noack an expert in training and employment at the Bertelsmann Foundation. “The percentage of employees who hold foreign passports has almost doubled since 2009,” he says. Germany’s shortage of skilled workers is a great opportunity for migrants. “If they have the necessary specialist skills and can speak German as well, the number of jobs open to them goes up by a third,” Dr Noack adds.

Having German skills at level B1/B2 is usually enough to start integrating into your new job. Training expert Dr Noack advises skilled workers who are thinking about starting work in Germany to focus on career-related content at an early stage when learning German. Self-tests like meine-berufserfahrung.de and additional skills tests like MySkills can help you identify your own professional strengths and focus your language learning on these areas. “Learning some specialist vocabulary even before you come to Germany can give you a boost when finding a job,” says Noack, whose team analysed over 48 million job adverts for their Job Monitor, which came out in 2022. German skills are in particularly high demand in the tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as transport and logistics. 

If you do want to get a foothold on working life in Germany, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to learn German. The “Ankommen” app helps you start learning words and phrases at home. The Goethe-Institut also offers exercises tailored to specific fields, making it easier to communicate in the workplace. In addition, adult education centres in Germany run work-related language courses, while part-time courses offered by the Federal Employment Agency allow those in employment to take part. In the end, German is just like any other language: give it a go, and don’t worry about making mistakes! The best way to practice what you’ve learned is by talking to others, be that in the office, the workshop, the bakery or a café.