Berlin, a quiet city with loud lessons for Kenya's workforce future

 Transport modes in Berlin. (Courtesy)

To Kenyans, Berlin is probably the most famous of all European cities.

It keeps recurring in our history as the venue of conferences that partitioned Africa from 1884 to 1885.

One mystery I resolved by visiting the city is why Germans got the “colonial leftovers” despite hosting the conference.

Germans say Otto Von Bismarck, the founder of modern Germany, foresaw the cost of colonialism.

Did the wind of change and independence vindicate him? Germany was also a manufacturing, not trading, powerhouse. The country’s security at home also mattered more than colonial luxury. 

Berlin has a long history, starting in 1237. It was subdivided during the Cold War, from 1961 to 1989 and was restored as the united German capital in 1991.

With a population of around four million, Berlin is a welcoming and quiet city despite the cold. This is evidenced by the fact that it gets more than 13 million tourists a year. What’s Kenya’s record? 

Berlin resembles other European cities with old historical buildings, canals, a river, and modernism with glass houses.

But in all cases, there is a great effort to rhyme the old and the new buildings. Berlin, like most other European cities, is full of memorials, from far into the past in the age of the empires to World War II. 

The government is visible through flags, not big cars. During my stay, I never saw a “V8” or its equivalent.

I was also on the lookout for a Mercedes S-class but saw none. One of the most popular cars is the Smart, which carries only two people and can be parked across the width of a normal car. Electric cars are picking up from the many charging points in the city. Remarkably, there are also no walls around government buildings, including Parliament, where many citizens and visitors pose for photos. Berlin’s hotels are modest despite well-known brands. The city has enough walking space for pedestrians. But Hamburg beats Berlin in bicycles and canals. 

Church spires remind us that religion once had its golden age. One German told me the church scandals, like paedophilia, have sent many away. I heard there is a church tax if you are a member of the church, perhaps the equivalent of tithe in Kenya. 

You can’t miss out on the Brandenburg Gate, the most iconic building, in addition to the Bundestag (parliament).

The number of museums and libraries in Berlin fascinated me. That is Europe for you. Berlin, which is the size of Nairobi, has 86 libraries and 170 museums. Clearly, European cities focus on liveability; you don’t just work; you need intellectual stimulation through connecting to the past and reading, theatres, music, and breathing space like parks. Does it surprise you longevity is going up there? 

Sightseeing was a sideshow. We had a more serious engagement: getting insights into labour migration and demographic winter. Germany is suffering from a labour shortage, which is not hard to explain. Baby boomers, a common term in the West, are retiring. There was a spike in births after WWII, hence the baby boom.

The birth rate has been going down and is below the replacement rate. This combination of low birthrates, an ageing population, and a shrinking workforce constitutes the demographic winter. The labour shortage was taken care of by immigrants. The European Union (EU) is borderless, and members of the EU can work anywhere in Europe. Germany, being a bigger economy, easily attracted workers from the rest of Europe. 

The problem now is that the EU countries that used to send immigrants to Germany to study and work have a similar demographic structure, with a more elderly population than youth. 

The alternative is to source workers from other countries beyond the EU. One possible source is Africa, with its demographic summer: a very young population in need of jobs.

The big debate is how to match a demographic winter and a summer. A labour migration agreement is one option. Kenya now has a labour migration agreement with Germany. We can also let the market do its work. 

We can balance the demographic winter and summer by availing “sunshine visas” to retirees from Europe and cold countries to stay in Kenya with their dollars and euros. 

Different education systems, languages, and difficulties in integration stand in the way of labour mobility. It’s time our schools prepared our children for global markets. How marketable are our graduate skills beyond the borders? 

Did I hear some Ugandan university students are studying Chinese in their first year? What foreign languages are taught in our schools, and which market do they target? 

Curiously, the job market in Germany and a few other countries is very biblical; the rejected stone is made the cornerstone. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) skills are now in very high demand. Is that why some students are skipping universities to join TVETS in Kenya? 

Germany needs about 400,000 workers a year. I hear we have supplied less than 1,000. Visit the “Make it in Germany” website and get details on how you can get a job there. 

Labour migration is part of a bigger debate: joblessness. What happens to those not migrating?

Maybe we should improve our investment climate to attract investors and jobs. Chinese growth was driven by foreign direct investment. Visit China and see the brands represented. I hear Nigerians have invested in Shenzhen. 

What about Kenyans? 

Investors would create jobs at home for the vast majority left behind. We must improve the investment ecology. How are power, security, schooling, the health system, infrastructure, and even small things like entertainment? 

Clearly, labour is the stickiest factor of production; it is now joining capital, easy to flow to where it’s needed. I hope the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) has factored in the globalisation of labour.

One thing we must take seriously in the globalisation of labour is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Skills in STEM are easy to transfer; they are not that context-sensitive.

Math or science is the same anywhere on this planet. This does not apply to social sciences. Can you imagine becoming a counsellor in Germany? 

Would you become a Member of County Assembly (MCA) in Germany or Sweden because you got a PhD in political science (no pun intended)?

Labour migration should be futuristic, addressing the skills of the future through schools.  

Finally, I did not visit the site of the Berlin conferences, a good reason to return to Berlin. And why do European passengers clap after the plane lands?  

Disclosure: The Konrad Andenaur Foundation sponsored my trip to Berlin.