Big business joins forces to bridge Germany's growing skills gap

BERLIN, April 22 (Reuters) – Germany’s industrial heavyweights are teaming up to retrain workers in areas such as software and logistics to fill a growing skills gap and avoid layoffs among workers of all ages as the economy shifts to clean energy and online shopping.

More than 36 major companies, ranging from auto suppliers such as Continental (CONG.DE) and Bosch (ROBG.UL) to industrial firms BASF (BASFn.DE) and Siemens (SIEGn.DE), have agreed to coordinate on redundancies at one firm and vacancies at another, training workers to move directly from job to job.

Stefan Dries worked across a range of sectors before landing a job at Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE) in the middle of the pandemic. While social distancing had made his work as a carer impossible, the postal service was hiring to meet online delivery demands.

Dries, 38, said he completed a 10-day intensive course on…