AUDIO(Noraml)
Germany wants workers from India
Germany needs lots of workers. It is struggling to find enough skilled people to work in many areas. This is because many older workers are retiring and the birth rate is falling. There are not enough young people to fill hundreds of thousands of job vacancies. It needs to attract 288,000 foreign workers per year. A recent report from the BBC said Germany wants to fix this problem by asking workers from India to fill many vacancies. India has 600 million people below the age of 25. In particular, Germany needs people to work in engineering, healthcare, and manufacturing. The country needs thousands of nurses and caregivers. It also needs thousands of IT professionals.
Germany is Europe's largest economy. It is famous for manufacturing, especially for cars. Companies like Volkswagen, Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW make some of the most famous cars in the world. Germany is also a leader in renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, and financial services. The government has made it easier for people to get visas to work in Germany. It has increased the number of visas available to Indians from 20,000 per year to 90,000. However, many business owners say more workers are needed. Indian employment expert Aditi Banerjee said: "There's a huge labour surplus in India." She is helping many young Indian workers to find work in Germany.
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Chat
Talk about these words from the article.
Germany / workers / skilled people / retiring / birth rate /
job / vacancies / age / nurses / economy / manufacturing /
cars / renewable energy / pharmaceuticals / expert / work
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Discussion
1) What did you think when you read the headline?
2) What images are in your mind when you hear the word 'worker'?
3) What job would you really like?
4) What is the job situation like in your country?
5) How surprised are you about Germany's labour shortage?
6) What skills would you like to have?
7) What age is best for people to retire at?
8) What do you think of getting workers from other countries?
9) How easy is it to find a job in your country?
10) What do you think of AI replacing many jobs?
