New careers in the Saarland steel industry

“Job profiles will change significantly over the next few years within the context of our transformation,” said Joerg Disteldorf, Managing Director of SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar and Chief Human Resources Officer of Saarstahl and Dillinger. “As an employer, we want to actively shape this transformation with an eye to the future and offer our employees a range of qualifications that will make them fit to meet the new challenges. Training our employees with these qualifications is a key success factor and we are pleased to have a strong partner in the Saarland Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK).”

As an anchor company in the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar will be involved in the future development of training framework plans and qualification concepts. This gives the companies of the SHS Group the opportunity to shape employee qualifications in a decisive and company-focused way that ensures the success of the transformation.
“Employee qualifications are the essential factor for a successful transformation of the Saarland steel industry. The IHK is therefore involved as a partner of SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar, in order to develop tailored offers for training, retraining, and vocational sub-qualification,” said Dr. Frank Thomé, Chief Managing Director of Saarland Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

An important part of the partnership between the Saarland Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the steel producer is the development of concepts for retraining and vocational sub-qualification as well as qualification training programs. These are designed to optimize the preparation of all employees for the changes the transformation will bring to their daily work routines. Young people are therefore already acquiring qualifications for handling the new aggregates and processes through additional instruction during their training as process technologists and in the traditional maintenance professions of electronics technician, mechatronics technician and industrial mechanic.
Skilled workers are also offered the opportunity to prepare for the new technologies with retraining or vocational sub-qualifications. These sub-qualifications are modules from existing training occupations that the company offers to employees on an individual basis to enable them to successfully manage a possible job change.

SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar and the IHK have, for example, jointly designed the qualifications for an “Industrial Specialist in Heat Treatment Technology”, who works in production in the rolling mill, as well as those for a “Lean and Shop Floor Specialist”. “Lean and Shop Floor Management” deals with issues such as process optimization, coaching leadership and change management, and thus supports the cultural change that accompanies technological transformation.

SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar is also involved in developing the DIHK “Hydrogen Specialist” qualification concept. This concept will be available in the fall of 2022. For the steel industry, the “Hydrogen Specialist” will be supplemented with an advanced module on steel production and expanded with a practical module to create the “Hydrogen Industry Specialist” program. To support the technical transformation in the industry, effort is also going into developing specialist concepts for electric steel production and direct reduced iron (DRI) plants.

The wide-ranging qualification programs will be launched in parallel with the planning of the technological transformation. The goal of the SHS Group is to involve employees in the technological transformation at an early stage so they can actively shape their new daily work routines as well as the transformation itself. For SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar, this is a key factor in the success of the transformation.