1st Regional Stakeholder Group meeting (Germany)

In the capital region, industries are organised into thematic clusters. They meet regularly with all the key decision-makers and political representatives of the region, who also address the issue of training in general. At the meeting of another large network, the Club Commission with almost 200 members (all important clubs in the city), OpTecBB discussed the BSR Deep Tech project and its impact on the training landscape regionally and towards Eastern Europe, and gathered experiences from the Health, Mobility, Culture and Photonics clusters. There is a shortage of skilled workers in all sectors, and there is a consensus that a focus on application-oriented training in cooperation with the region's twelve polytechnics, in addition to the seven universities, is necessary and should be supported. The Senate for Economic Affairs has included this need in its innovation catalogue.

Partticipitions from associated organizations, higher education and research institutions, BSO, sectoral agencies were present but S/R not.

Outcome for tools:

Many activities are taking place in the various organisations to strengthen young people in photonics.

• The companies are focusing on training programmes, in some cases even with their own apprenticeship "microelectronics technician for photonics", which is offered jointly with other companies. This initiative is supported by the ANH, with which OpTecBB liaises closely.
• The universities offer several degree programmes with a focus on photonics, but there is no coordination of the course content. This needs to be improved.
• The universities of applied sciences also offer dedicated photonics degree programmes, but there is a lack of recognition by the universities to recommend the change. Professors at universities often simply lack knowledge of these degree programmes.
• Overall, there was a complete lack of informative dialogue with students or potential students, which is also reflected in the fact that not a single student or representative of a student association accepted the invitation.

We are therefore endeavouring to hold a further meeting with representatives of the student body in particular.