Greek Kindergardens in Munich

The Innere Mission organization run by the Evangelical Church of Munich has hired ten Greek schoolteachers to fill its educational needs as it lacks trained personnel.

Starting from September 1^st 2012, ten schoolteachers from Greece will start working in the social institution of the Evangelical Church Innere Mission. The idea of hiring trained personnel belongs to a German-Greek employment agency, as unemployment amongst youth in Greece is extremely high.

“The response to the call was direct,” Ms. Rosemary Rainheld says to DW, Head of the Nursery Department of the organization.

“The main reason for hiring the new schoolteachers is the major lack of trained personnel in Germany. During the interviews in Athens that I personally organized, I found out that the people applying for the jobs are well trained teachers that would happily move to Germany. For us, it was important to support their decision,” Ms. Reinheld stated.

Good knowledge of the German language and sufficient previous studies are a prerequisite.

The Innere Mission organization ran by the Evangelical Church of Munich consists of 17 departments, that are in need of trained personnel and it is very likely new hiring efforts to be organized in the shortcoming future. The qualifications of the applicants according to Ms. Rosemary Reiheld are the following,”They should necessarily speak German on a very good level. We do not work with bilingual schools, only with German. The applicants should have a very good knowledge of the German language and their previous studies should be relevant and sufficient.”

The organization criticizes the policy of the federal government that proposes the retraining of unemployed people from professions outside of education to fill the vacancies in the field of early education. According to the organization, people with specialized knowledge are necessary to be hired, as well as people that love this specific profession.

The salary offered is between 2.400 to 2.600 Euros per month (without taxes) and the contract is for an indefinite period of time. The example of the Evangelical Organization has inspired more organizations that are moving in the same direction.

Ms. Reinheld would like during the end of the interview to underline for one more time how happy she feels for her colleagues from Greece, “We are very happy for our young colleagues from Greece. During a daily communication that we have with them via e-mails they express their enthusiasm  for moving to Germany.”

The only minor problem is finding accommodations in Munich, but the people already working in the organization and living in Munich are doing their best to have everything ready before the time their colleagues from Greece arrive in Germany.