For the first time this year, we had a stand at the German Daycare Congress in Wiesbaden's Rhein Main Congress Center on September 25 and 26. We spent two days there talking to representatives from local authority, non-profit and church daycare providers. We were also able to give a presentation on the international recruitment of nursery teachers. We have been recruiting nursery teachers from Latin America for two years now - 30 of them are already working in Germany and we are expecting 15 more to start work in spring 2024.
We are currently receiving inquiries from daycare providers on an almost daily basis. There was also a lot of interest at the DKLK. We are delighted to be able to offer other international talents good career prospects in Germany - and to help alleviate the staff shortage in the facilities.
At the German Nursing Day in Berlin on September 28 and 29, we also held interesting discussions with representatives from clinics and retirement homes, met long-standing customers and got to know our competitors. The Goethe-Institut, which is our language school partner in several countries of origin, was a guest at our stand, as were the ZAV and a representative of the Federal Ministry of Health.
One thing is clear: the shortage of skilled workers in the care sector is a concern for everyone. Fair recruiting (according to quality seal criteria) is becoming increasingly important. But it will not be enough just to look for already trained specialists. After all, many other industrialized countries are also recruiting nursing staff from third countries. Instead, we should promote our attractive dual training system even more strongly: Being able to do a highly regarded, remunerated apprenticeship in Germany is very attractive to young people from many countries of origin. This is why we have recently started to recruit trainees for nursing schools.