Engineers and scientists needed!

Internationally, Germany is known as the “home country of engineering”; German natural scientists have made important contributions to the development of their disciplines. All this seems to be of little relevance to German youngster these days. Their interest in engineering and sciences continues to decline. 106,300 freshmen opted for an engineering subject in 2012, which is 8.8% less than in the previous year.

The situation is hardly better in the natural sciences (including mathematics), which saw a decline of 7.2%. More interest could be summoned by study subjects related to health. The number of young people who enrolled for medicine or health sciences in 2012 increased by 7.9% compared to 2011. As Germany will soon experience a shortage of doctors, especially in the eastern part, this is basically good news.

Germany's high-tech economy, however, has to continue worrying about its future workforce. Even now the number of vacancies for engineers and scientists is in the five-digit range. The country's prospects as a leader in advanced technology depend on a continuous flow of well-educated, highly motivated young people with state-of-the-art skills in engineering and the sciences. This opens up great opportunities for international students willing to pack up their bags and start a new life in the heart of Europe.

Source: German Federal Office of Statistics

Chris

germanstudycentre@gmail.com