From the German course to the job: immigrants took advantage of their opportunity

Large domestic companies with high staffing needs are already recruiting future employees through German and integration courses. Yesterday a career platform organized by the Austrian Integration Fund (ÖIF) took place in cooperation with the Rewe Group at the BFI Wels.

Around 50 people entitled to asylum, those entitled to subsidiary protection and displaced persons from Ukraine were able to conduct job interviews directly on site with two recruiters from the retail group and apply for around 50 open positions in the Wels area.

Iman Hassan was one who took advantage of the opportunity. The 26-year-old Syrian already speaks German very well. “I want to work, I want to start as a shelf supervisor, and later maybe work at the cash register,” says the mother of two sons aged four and six to the Welser Zeitung. Her husband has been working at Rotax in Gunskirchen for seven years. The family will soon move from Edt near Lambach to Wels, where they have bought a house.

The 16-year-old Ukrainian Bohdan Nachev, who lives with his mother and two sisters in Bad Schallerbach, has other professional plans. “I want to do an apprenticeship and vocational school and work in the field of metal construction,” says the young person.

Colleagues from 103 nations

Rewe HR recruiter Sabine Petzold presented the company, which employs 46,500 people from 103 nations in Austria. “It is important that they can communicate with their colleagues,” says Petzold of the participants who are currently completing German courses at A2 or B1 level. She also has a few treats ready, such as employee discounts and family-friendly working time models.

80 career platforms with around 7,500 participants have already taken place nationwide, reports Timo Andreas Bovelino, head of integration centers at the ÖIF. “This format is very well received by companies but also by the target group because it is an opportunity to quickly enter the job market,” says Bovelino. He also announced that cooperation with the city of Wels would be intensified with formats like these, integration courses and school visits.

The Wels deputy mayor and integration officer Gerhard Kroiß (FP) once again emphasized that learning the German language and accessing the labor market as quickly as possible were essential prerequisites for successful integration.

“At the BFI in Wels alone, ten German courses for immigrants, which are assigned by the ÖIF, are currently taking place in parallel,” says Stefan Oppl, managing director of the BFI Upper Austria.