Daniel, what is your task in the sales team of neue fische?

Daniel Gustafsson: Our job is to always keep an ear to the market. I am in constant exchange with companies and digital leaders about current tech trends. At the same time, I see myself as a companion in making our partners fit for the future. Specifically, it is about changing the mindset from an administrative to a learning organisation. With reskilling and upskilling, we develop employees or career changers into IT talents. A better career is possible.

Dalia, what are the requirements to become an IT talent through an IT bootcamp?

Dalia Das: First and foremost, it takes curiosity plus a willingness to learn - on all sides. On the client side and on the part of the participants. Access to our IT bootcamps is extra barrier-free for everyone - remotely and also part-time. Whether you are a university dropout or a temporary soldier, whether you are coming back from parental leave or school: with us, anyone can start an IT career after 12 weeks of training.

Timo Marczinski: But we do not just train the IT talents of tomorrow, we also take on the retraining and further education of employees. We offer companies customised re-skilling and upskilling. For example, office managers become web developers.

How does a normal work day look like?

Timo: There is no such thing as a normal day for me. Fortunately! Every day is different and demands different priorities. What I particularly enjoy is the intensive exchange with customers. As a key account manager, I currently look after large companies such as Accenture and Deutsche Telekom. Together we look at how we can best adapt the graduates of our IT boot camps to the open vacancies, or how we can further qualify their internal employees through reskilling and upskilling their careers.

Daniel: Normal? What is "normal" today? Every day is the first day for me. I want to avoid blinkers, not act blindly and always remain open to new things.

There is currently a shortage of over 137,000 IT professionals. How could it have come to this?

Dalia: The shortage of skilled workers is the result of the interaction of many complex issues. There is the school education system as well as the university education system. Both contain too few digital future skills in the curriculum. At the same time, there is a need for more alternative training programmes such as boot camps. But the mindset regarding digitalisation also makes adjustments difficult. In addition, there are structural changes, the lowering of the retirement age and the early retirement of the baby boomers.

Daniel: According to all forecasts, the situation will continue to worsen. There are certainly ways to counteract this trend.

How can the trend be counteracted?

Timo: One possibility would be an image change. For too long, digital professions were not considered "sexy". But IT is so much more than writing code in a dark room. IT talents are involved in pretty much all areas, such as mobility, artificial intelligence or personalised medicine.

What options for action do companies have?

Daniel: The first step is to recognise the challenge. Only then can you openly think about possible solutions. What these look like in detail is company-specific. But what they all have in common is that it is not possible without the further development of the employees.

Dalia: This is where we come in. We qualify the candidates. In other words, we find the people - internally in the company as well as externally - whom we shape into IT talents precisely matched to the open vacancies. This allows companies to concentrate on their core competencies.

What role do reskilling and upskilling play in the tech know-how of the future?

Dalia: A big one! Reskilling and upskilling are the levers for companies to make their most valuable resource, their employees, fit for the digital future. But for an effective way out of the IT skills shortage, a combination of internal development opportunities and the recruitment of external IT newcomers from outside the industry is needed. So a new career path is possible.

Daniel: Every day I see that many companies have enormous potential and know-how within their own ranks. It is important to tap into this. With reskilling and upskilling, this can be done in a sustainable, planned and cost-efficient way.

What are the advances of re- and upskilling for companies?

Daniel: There are many. IT expertise is developed, retention increases and so does the image. Companies that recruit motivated IT career changers instead of sticking to gapless, stringent CVs are attractive to applicants - even among the digitally affine GenZ.

Timo: Many jobs are being eliminated due to the transformation. Reskilling or upskilling offers existing employees the chance to stay in the company and qualify for IT jobs. This saves time and money and at the same time binds know-how. Because there is no need to recruit new staff.

Dalia: Our claim is the "perfect match". Our graduates go through a multi-stage selection process and are carefully chosen based on their motivation and learning ability. After the training, we place the candidates super individually in the right job.

When companies decide to cooperate, what tasks do they have to do?

Daniel: We do the work. It is our daily business to conduct re-skilling, upskilling and IT boot camps. But for these to work efficiently, we have to know the "need". In other words, everything starts with a preliminary discussion to understand the challenge. At the same time, we discuss possible application scenarios. The goal is to define and clearly forecast the outcome.

What was a best case for reskilling for you?

Dalia: We are proud of every person who has made a direct entry into the tech world through our IT bootcamps. For many graduates, this is the beginning of a completely new "era", as they previously came from other jobs or countries or even parental leave. Mothers in particular have a lot of potential that the labour market does not see and does not promote. There are so many women in Germany who want to return to the labour market after their parental leave. Our mission is to pave their way into IT in a pragmatic way that is suitable for everyday life.

What would be your wish for all HR managers and CEOs?

Daniel: I think many people have the topic on their radar and are open to change. Too often, however, it fails at the concrete implementation combined with insecurities about boot camps. This is where we come in. We support everything around bootcamps, because that is our core competence - and not that of the companies.

Timo: "Hire for attitude - train for skills!" An example of this is Deutsche Telekom, because they hire talents who are only a 60% fit instead of 100%, but who are "really up for our shop". That's how Julia Ewen-Hoffmann, Head of Learning & Development, put it herself at a recent HR trade fair. I would therefore like to see more openness towards the potential of lifelong development - also towards career changers.