8th meeting of the Regional Skilled Workers Alliance Leine-Weser
Skilled workers ensure innovation and competitiveness, growth and employment, prosperity and quality of life. For this reason, the Leine-Weser Regional Development Office hosted the 8th meeting of the Leine-Weser Regional Skilled Workers Alliance in Hanover on November 7, 2023.
Under the title “Securing skilled workers in times of AI and virtual reality” , the Leine-Weser Regional Alliance for Skilled Workers explored new ways of recruiting and securing skilled workers, developing promising projects and networking stakeholders.
The event highlighted the opportunities and risks of digitalization for skilled workers. The starting point of the discussion format was the observation that artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) are already indispensable in many areas of the world of work. Cornelia Frerichs, Head of Division at the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture, opened the meeting and emphasized that human skills and social skills are still crucial for many professions.
The State Commissioner for Regional Development Leine-Weser, Frauke Patzke, led the approximately 60 participants through the event as Chairwoman of the Regional Skilled Workers Alliance Leine-Weser. She emphasized the tasks of the alliance: “Overcoming the shortage of skilled workers requires the coordination of the activities of the government, labour market institutions, educational institutions and companies. Our alliance for the regions of Hanover, Hildesheim and Weserbergland Plus brings these together. In this way, targeted measures can be supported, projects promoted, experiences exchanged and current challenges tackled together.”
In his keynote speech “How AI is changing the world of work”, Prof. Dr. Tim Brockmann from the Kommunale Hochschule für Verwaltung Niedersachsen used practical examples to explain how artificial intelligence is changing the current and future world of work. He only considered AI systems such as ChatGPT to be effective if they are “fed” with sufficient data.
The alliance meeting also offered the opportunity to find out about the ten current projects from the Leine-Weser region and exchange experiences at a “market of opportunities”. One highlight here was the opportunity to try out the VRECH (Virtual Reality Education Center Hannover), i.e. virtual reality, which had previously been presented by Sören Isleib, Region Hannover.
At the end of the event, keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Tim Brockmann, Evelyne Beger (Managing Director of the Hildesheim Employment Agency), Jörg Michal (Lower Saxony Ministry of Education) and Matthias Christel (VRECH) discussed the topic of “How can virtual reality and artificial intelligence contribute to securing skilled workers?”. The participants agreed that the transformation of the world of work brings with it many advantages as well as challenges, including the need for responsible use of technology, dealing with data protection issues and ensuring a balanced integration of human and machine skills.
The current developments regarding AI and VR and their impact on recruiting and securing skilled workers are also relevant for aconium GmbH. The event gave us the opportunity to exchange ideas with stakeholders from the Leine-Weser Regional Skilled Workers Alliance, meet potential cooperation partners and learn about funding opportunities for securing and recruiting skilled workers.