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Shortage of skilled workers

Focus

Text Peter Bader

The future belongs to tradespeople

For years, the technical industry has been struggling with a shortage of skilled workers. Automation, modern employer branding, and efforts to recruit young talent may help, but they will not solve the problem completely. Yet the doyen of the industry remains optimistic.

Ernst Thomke is worried. The veteran of Swiss industry, who breathed new life into the watchmaking industry in the 1980s, has identified a “massive shortage of traditional tradespeople”. One main reason for this is that an increasing number of young people – often under pressure from their parents rather than due to their intellectual abilities – are choosing to continue their education instead of pursuing an apprenticeship. This particularly has to do with the poor image of skilled trades that persists in some places, explains the 86-year-old, who once completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic himself.

A look at the current figures confirms Thomke’s assessment. According to the Swiss Jobradar, there were 2,421 vacant polymechanic positions in Switzerland in the first quarter of 2025. These were joined by vacancies for 2,235 service technicians, 2,205 automation specialists, 1,838 mechan-ics and 1,726 machine operators. At the top of the list were nursing professionals (6,450), electricians (6,203), and carpenters (3,555).

Top priority: employer branding
The increasing shortage of skilled workers has also been causing concern for Eva Jaisli, chair and co-owner of PB Swiss Tools, for years. She believes that the main reason for this is demographic change, with the retirement of baby boomers and a lack of young successors. The manufacturer of tools and medical instruments in the Emmental region of the canton of Bern offers training in eight professions. Jaisli points out that they are seeing less and less interest in this, and particularly in apprenticeships to become production mechanics and polymechanics. The latter, in particular, have highly specialized know-how, so they cannot simply be recruited from abroad. “We rely on training our own skilled workers.”
PB Swiss Tools places top priority on modern employer branding to position itself as a reliable and attractive employer and training facility. Jaisli: “We create high-quality campaigns, we are present on social media and at trade fairs, and we maintain personal networks. We also involve our young employees in our efforts.” She says that it is important to build relationships with teachers and students and to invite them to the company so that they feel enthused about technical careers. As Vice President of Swissmem, the association for Switzerland’s mechanical and electrical engineering industries, she is also committed to making the technical job profiles and trainings attractive by continuously developing them further. This is where industry associations have a role to play, she states.

This is confirmed by Enzo Armellino, CEO of Swissmechanic Solothurn, the “agile association of the SME MEM industry”. He feels that, in any case, the working environment for skilled trades has changed fundamentally. “Instead of dirty, dark workshops, there are now bright halls with modern machines. Apprentices are the skilled workers of tomorrow; much more emphasis is placed on good training today.” Of course, com-panies have automated their processes to save on personnel costs and remain competitive, adds Armellino. But highly qualified workers such as polymechanics are still needed to program, set up and operate the machines and equipment. “It’s therefore important that many young people choose to do an apprenticeship. This way, they will be able to work on the machines and generate concrete added value later on.”

“Flagship project for dual education system”
Swissmechanic Solothurn offers inter-company courses and basic training for future polymechanics, production mechanics, and design engineers, as well as further education for adults. In summer 2025, the association and its educational offerings moved to the newly built Campus Technik in Grenchen. State-of-the-art machinery and innovative infrastructure, together with contemporary teaching methods, will raise training and further education to a new, practice-based level.

In addition, a workshop for the “focusMINT” program is being set up on campus. There, pupils from preschool age onwards will be introduced to the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) in a way that is appropriate for their age, inspiring them to pursue careers in these fields. “We need to attract children and young people to our industry as early on as possible. There is still a lot of untapped potential, especially among girls,” says Armellino confidently. Start-ups and the Higher Technical College Mittelland (hftm), as a development partner to the business sector, will also move onto the campus. “The campus will unite the entire educational value chain and thus bring lifelong learning under one roof, making it a flagship project for the dual education system.”

Low staff turnover

Liquidtool Systems, a sister company of Blaser Swisslube, offers solutions for the automated use of metalworking fluids. This increases efficiency, saves costs, and “allows companies to use their scarce supply of skilled workers for more important tasks than monitoring and maintaining the coolant,” says Daniel Brawand, Head of Marketing and Sales at Liquidtool Systems. The company itself primarily employs IT specialists and relies on LinkedIn campaigns and personal networks to recruit them. Blaser Swisslube has been committed to modern employer branding and attractive employment conditions for many years. And this is paying off. “At Blaser Swisslube, our staff turnover is low. In 2024, it was 4.2 percent, while the industry average was at 12 percent,” says HR Manager Renate Troxler.

Ernst Thomke is a generous patron of the Campus Technik. He financed the construction and is providing the premises on attractive terms. Given such offerings, he remains optimistic. “Tradespeople may well be assisted by AI, but they will not be replaced by it like many other professional groups. To put it bluntly, the future belongs to tradespeople as well as highly qualified mathematicians and engineers, not to bankers, lawyers, commercial employees, or accountants.”

Photos The Campus Technik in Grenchen (Switzerland) has a work-shop dedicated to the “focusMINT” program. The aim is to get children, young people, and especially girls interested in the technical sector at an early age. (Swissmem, Enzo Armellino, Alexandra Schürch