The Eigenbetrieb Kindertagesstätten Offenbach (EKO) is using the "Project Incoming" to recruit specialists for the city's daycare centers. The project, which will run for around 1.5 years, was set up in collaboration with the International Personnel Services (ZAV) of the Federal Employment Agency. The first recruits have now arrived in Offenbach.
Mayor Sabine Groß"To counteract the shortage of skilled workers in Offenbach's daycare centers, the EKO is taking different approaches. One is the recruitment of specialists from other EU countries"
Recruitment events are held there on a regular basis and placement programs are developed with the local providers, chambers and associations. EURES (European Employment Services), the network for promoting professional mobility between Germany and other European countries, is responsible for practical implementation.
One of these professionals is Lucia Bursich from Alicante, who spent time in three Offenbach daycare centers in April. The educator, who trained in Spain, had already spent her au pair time in Germany in 2015, back then in Lübeck. Now she wants to return and has chosen Offenbach as her new place of work. She really likes it here, she said. She was particularly impressed by the Büsingpalais, the neo-baroque building in the heart of Offenbach, during her first few days. An excursion to the palace and the new harbor district was one of the things that Andrea Fröhlich, head of the pedagogical department, took the specialists on a short tour of the city center. In addition to the entertaining leisure activities, the professional exchange was not neglected and all applicants were presented with the Hessian Education and Upbringing Plan (BEP) by the EKO. "Supporting a project like this is very time-consuming," reports Andrea Fröhlich. "But above all, it's very nice and personal encounters with the specialists who are interested in the EKO and who will hopefully soon start working in our company."
Lucia Bursich was warmly welcomed in the daycare centers and was able to gain a first impression of everyday life in a daycare center. "The daily routine in German daycare centers seems to be quite flexible. In Spain, daycare centers are structured more like schools," she reports. In the EKO daycare centers, on the other hand, education is seen as a social process in which everyone, i.e. professionals, children and their families, are actively involved. However, Lucia Bursich finds it easy to adapt to the new structures, she says. To be even better prepared, she took a refresher language course at the beginning of this year because her German had become a little rusty in recent years. In Offenbach, she took the opportunity to buy a few German novels and children's books at the city library's bookstall to improve her language skills.
The EKO is delighted that this project is going so well. "Both the applicants and the daycare centers described the work shadowing sessions as a success," says Offenbach's mayor Sabine Groß. "The next step from summer 2023 will then be entry, including finding accommodation, recognition of training and further language courses. It is important that we continue to provide the skilled workers with good support so that they can put down permanent roots in Offenbach."
