Hospodářské noviny | More than five million people will need to be retrained in the Czech Republic by 2030. Car industry will mainly face the problems

The Czech car industry is lagging behind the rest of Europe and the world. It may not be able to pick what to produce, but it has the opportunity to strengthen its competitiveness and resilience. However, it needs trained and educated employees, which are hard to find on the local labour market. So are we going to train the automotive workforce, strengthen the position of our strategic sector and promote a just transformation? Or are we going to continue to say that the transition to electric mobility does not concern us and that the Green Deal for Europe is to blame for increased unemployment? How to produce electric cars and remain competitive? Rebeka Hengalová, a researcher at EUROPEUM Institute, discusses this topic in her article for economic daily Hospodářské noviny.

"It could be argued that the training of employees is a matter for the companies concerned. If they don't realise in time that their employees don't have the right skills for the new direction of production, it is up to them to deal with that fact. However, such a careless approach should not be allowed in a strategic sector that employs over 180 000 people directly in the Czech Republic and up to half a million in associated industries. The alternative to courses is recruiting new employees and shedding old jobs. But the Czech labour market does not have the capacity or the right people to do this by 2030."

You can read the whole article here.

Rebeka Hengalová
Research Fellow