GERMANY: Shortage of science graduates alarming

German industry still lacks specialists in mathematics, informatics, the natural sciences and engineering, according to a survey recently published by the country's leading industrial organisations. It stressed that the shortage of graduates in these key fields had grown dramatically since the beginning of the year.

The MINT Report, compiled by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, appears every six months. MINT stands for mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and technology.

It is also the name of a campaign to boost development in these areas by the Federation of German Industry (BDI), the Federation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) and the Federation of German Employers' Associations in the Metal and Electrical Engineering Industries, who commissioned the survey.

The latest MINT Report revealed that there was a lack of 167,000 specialists in the MINT areas in October. This represented a 73% increase since the beginning of the year.

Studying MINT subjects offers attractive career prospects. MINT graduates can reckon with good salaries and a successful integration in professional life. So the job market itself can hardly be the reason for present trends.

"Now we are seeing 27% of MINT students giving up studying because conditions are too poor," said Thomas Sattelberger, who heads the MINT campaign and is Deutsche Telekom board director for human resources.

"I call on the state governments to invest more in higher education."

Sattelberg maintained that German industry is making considerable efforts to improve the situation. It provides more than EUR100 million (US$134 million) a year to boost MINT education at kindergartens and in vocational and higher education, and to inform people about the prospects that MINT subjects offer.

According to Michael Hüther, director of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, the average MINT academic belongs to the upper-middle-class and enjoys excellent career prospects both in traditional MINT professions and in other occupational fields such as teaching, consulting and management.

Around 40% of CEOs of leading German companies listed on the stock exchange hold degrees in natural science, mathematics or engineering. "As far as Germany as a high-tech centre is concerned, the formula that management equals MINT applies increasingly," Hüther said.

However, the considerable demand for MINT graduates outside traditional MINT fields only adds to the shortage of staff in core MINT areas of employment.

Christine Anger, Oliver Koppel and Axel Plünnecke, who wrote the MINT Report, stressed that only every second MINT graduate is assigned to a true MINT profession (that is, as a mathematician, computer scientist or engineer) in the employment statistics.

Many MINT academics work in the teaching professions (in higher, vocational or secondary education), in economic fields relating to research activities (for example, cost control), as managing directors of firms operating in engineering fields or in areas relating to legal aspects, for example as patent examiners.

The survey's authors caution that an already existing shortage that is set to worsen in the MINT areas could result in Germany failing to attain important goals in its innovation and research policy agenda.

Gabriele Sons, director-general of Gesamtmetall, reiterated her warning that shortages in specialist staff supply will affect small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular.

"They are already noticing the effects of bottlenecks. It is much more difficult for them to assert themselves with their special strengths, and they need targeted support," Sons said.

The MINT Report advised SMEs to give sufficient consideration to retaining older staff members. "Without these people, we will be unable to meet the demand for replacements and expansion in the MINT sector," she warned.

michael.gardner@uw-news.com