Where there’s a will, there’s a change

Getting out of coal – that's a done deal in Germany. Other countries also have targets for the energy transition and want to see if there is something to be learned from the German   experience. In this context, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) advises the Indonesian government with TVET concepts for Indonesia’s path to climate neutrality by 2060. A special focus lies on upskilling and reskilling for employees who want to work in sustainable sectors of the economy. As part of this advisory project, BIBB invited human resources and transformation specialists from RWE Power AG to an expert discussion in mid-July. BIBB President Friedrich Hubert Esser was also present. As a vocational training expert and resident of a region shaped by lignite mining, he was particularly interested in the discussion.

Offering prospects for employees

RWE Power AG currently employs around 6,500 people in conventional lignite-based power generation. With the coal phase-out brought forward to 2030 in the Rhineland region, the question arises as to what will happen to these employees. 

"Training is key to securing adequate employment beyond 2030. That is why we will systematically identify skills and match them with internal and external requirements in order to offer employees prospects for the future," explains Melanie Lober, Head of Qualification & Placement at RWE Power AG. In addition to a high level of transparency in the process, however, it is important to involve employees at the right time so that the steps required for a new role can be addressed in a targeted and concrete manner. 

However, when the time comes, employees will have three options: "Firstly, there may be a future at RWE in the Rhineland region, for example in the operation and maintenance of onshore or offshore wind farms. However, our future business areas will not offer jobs for all of our 6,500 employees in the region. Another option for employees may therefore be to find new employment within the RWE Group. And then there will certainly be some people whom we will have to place in the external labour market," Lober continued. 

RWE Power AG conducts most of its retraining with internal resources, for example in the electrical field for photovoltaic maintenance and servicing. "This was already the case in the mining school, where colleagues trained each other," explains Christiane Schmitten, Head of Transformation at RWE Power AG. "However, we acknowledge the great importance of recognised certificates so that employees are also guaranteed employability outside the Group. For some qualifications, these are mandatory anyway, for instance according to the standards of the Global Wind Organisation." 

"Many employees are no longer used to going back to school."

When asked which skills are particularly important for the transformation, change expert Schmitten has a clear answer: "A key skill is flexibility. It is important to communicate as early as possible how important it is to be open to new developments and activities." Currently, this applies to AI, for example. Fostering this openness to transformation and the idea of lifelong learning requires developing appropriate concepts: "Many employees are no longer used to going back to school, as their initial training may have taken place some time ago. This poses challenges for everyone."

RWE continues to train young people in 17 dual apprenticeship programmes. All apprenticeship positions are filled, despite the foreseeable staff cuts. After completing their training, the young people are offered a one-year contract. It seems that for young people this prospect is not that important, observes HR manager Marten Schlöbe: "They say, 'The training has given me a solid foundation that I can build on.'" The group is currently concerned about the future of its training centres. Their locations are actually intended to continue offering high-quality training for the region in the future through new cooperation partners. Unfortunately, Schlöbe says that currently no solution is in sight.

In all its transformation projects, RWE relies on everyone pulling together: management, the workers’ council and employees. And according to Schlöbe, this is generally working very well: "We realise that we can only achieve the transformation together.". For RWE, this trustful cooperation with the respective committees also includes involvement in regional networks. For example, the Group has joined forces with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to form Perspektive.Struktur.Wandel GmbH and is involved in the Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier (Rhenish Mining Area Future Agency) and the Jobdrehscheibe NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia Job Hub). This shows that only a joint commitment by politics, business and civil society can create an attractive alternative for the former coal-mining region.