The Neckar-Fils region is nestled in the broader metropolitan region of Stuttgart and is considered one of the most attractive locations in southern Germany – not just because of its strong technological skills force, but also because of its patchwork quilt of countryside. There is a predominance of machine tool makers in the area, as well as automotive companies. Apart from major companies such as Daimler, Robert Bosch, Festo and Schuler, a variety of small and medium-sized enterprises have settled in the region – important sources of ideas, products and services who have also successfully entered the international scene of their own initiative. On a ride through the Neckar-Fils region, one rarely sees household names. Rather, the region is peppered with hidden champions, developers of technologically advanced products who have successful international track records. The academic expertise needed to achieve this is supplied by the universities in Stuttgart, Esslingen, Nürtingen, Göppingen and Geislingen. The non-academic expertise in the area stems from its establishments of higher education, vocational schools and company training workshops.
It’s on this fertile soil that the Steinbeis concept has taken root, with the aim of transferring technology from universities into enterprise. The technology transfer projects in the region fuel important developments and services, frequently culminating in solutions ready for serial production. The Steinbeis Enterprises (SEs) here are often confronted with new and up-to-the-minute issues, which require a high degree of creativity, a wealth of knowledge in any given specialist area, the ability to work in teams and hands-on experience. To carry out such projects professionally, our SEs need educated academics and technical specialists, especially in the “MINT” disciplines – mathematics, informatics and computer sciences, natural sciences, and technology. This resource has been in short supply on the market for many months now. Some economic scientists and politicians still claim there isn’t actually a shortage of skilled workers, but the fact is, there is a shortage and it’s slowing the pace of innovation severely. According to a survey carried out by the German Chamber of Commerce (IHK) regarding skilled workers in the Stuttgart region, we are facing an upcoming shortage of around 38,000 academics and 193,000 commercial specialists – despite huge university expansion over the past few years. The forecast by 2021 is that the shortage of skilled workers will continue to worsen if training and staff development is not improved significantly in the short term. This could present SEs with another big opportunity for future activities – by joining forces with universities to offer training and thus expand technology transfer through knowledge sharing.
An additional service provided by SEs, that receives scant attention, is “personnel transfer.” Projects carried out for – and often with – industry generally result in close collaboration between the client company and our SE specialists. As projects come to fruition and both parties express satisfaction, there is a growing interest from our clients to invite SE experts to push ahead, based on the results of the project – after all, our experts are by then familiar with the technical details, and personal issues. As of late, the practice of exchanging personnel has become much more common due to the shortage of skilled workers. The fact that, time and again, client companies are able to take on staff known to them – people who are exactly right for them, who are familiar with their project, and who are quick and inexpensive to recruit – is a tremendous advantage to the companies that work with Steinbeis Enterprises. And perhaps this is still not sufficiently appreciated by the companies.
I hope you enjoy reading this latest edition of TRANSFER.
Prof. Dr. Jürgen van der List
Prof. Dr. Jürgen van der List is the former rector of Esslingen University of Applied Sciences and heads up the Steinbeis Transfer Center of Microelectronics in Göppingen. All Steinbeis Enterprises in the Neckar-Fils region