Reforms in the healthcare sector not feasible without skilled workers
Hubert Ertl
Dear readers,
In February 2026, the German Science and Humanities Council published a position paper on the topic of prevention and health promotion.[1] It states: “In the light of demographic development and given the growing risks to health faced by various sectors of society because of climate change and the shortage of qualified skilled workers, disease prevention and health promotion will become ever more important for policy makers and the healthcare system as well as for research and the economy” (p. 5).
The paper puts forward wide-ranging considerations as to how the academic research system can assist in achieving political and societal healthcare objectives. While skilled worker shortages in the healthcare system are also identified within this context, questions as to how the training of skilled workers should be promoted and what specific contributions academic research and the education and training system should make in this regard remain largely unanswered.
This issue of BWP addresses these questions and illustrates the highly dynamic nature of the healthcare system as an occupational field. The core point examined is how skilled workers can be developed and trained in the healthcare professions, which is the only way the prevention and health promotion goals set out by the German Science and Humanities Council can be realised.
Requirements in the healthcare professions are rising. Technical medical competencies and social and communicative competencies must be linked in order to ensure that the complex demands of patient-centred care are met. Inter-professional collaboration between different occupational groups is also becoming more significant with regard to pooling complementary competencies and improving communication between care areas. The establishment of multi-professional institutions is a highly promising approach for avoiding breaks in care and achieving increased quality and efficiency of healthcare provision.
“How must this occupational field be equipped structurally? How can task and development prospects be shaped in a way which increases the attractiveness of healthcare professions and leads to the acquisition and retention of more qualified skilled workers?”
New technologies are also entering the healthcare system. The spectrum here ranges from the implementation of electronic patient records to online health promotion services and even extends to the deployment of nursing robots. This results in new requirements for employees in the healthcare sector, which need to continually inform the structure of initial and continuing VET.
The healthcare system is a significant occupational field with over six million employees, which has increased in recent years due to demographic development. However, BIBB projections indicate shortages over the next 15 years, especially in the nursing professions. From a VET point of view, the question is how must this occupational field be equipped structurally? How can task and development prospects be shaped in a way which increases the attractiveness of healthcare professions and leads to the acquisition and retention of more qualified skilled workers? This is an occupational field characterised by a multitude of initial and continuing training programmes governed by federal and by federal state law. These differentiations make comprehensive and effective reforms challenging. But there is no way round it. The articles in this issue address these questions, tracing pathways that have already been embarked upon and encouraging the further pursuit of these.
Professor Hubert Ertl
Director of Research and Vice-President of BIBB
Translation from the German original (published in BWP 2/2026): Martin Kelsey, GlobalSprachTeam, Berlin