Beyond Future Skills: Developing Company Personas in Disruptive Transformation Processes

The labor market in Germany is characterized by far-reaching transformation processes: digitization and AI are changing work and qualification requirements, the mobility turnaround with the departure from the combustion engine is making entire branches of industry obsolete, and the ageing of society is reflected in the shortage of skilled workers, which cannot be adequately compensated for by immigration and retraining. This case study describes the expected labor market situation and qualification requirements in the Heilbronn-Franken region in Germany with the help of company personas, which were created based on expert interviews with representatives of key German industries. The findings show that despite changing job and requirement profiles, no significant job losses are expected and that companies see their greatest need for retraining and further training not in industry-specific skills, but in digital and interdisciplinary skills.