Handwerkskammer Hannover

Skilled crafts as a strong economic factor

The skilled crafts comprise the most diverse economic sector and form the backbone of the German economy with their small and medium-sized businesses. In the area covered by the Hannover Chamber of Skilled Crafts alone, in 2021 around 19,000 member companies with approximately 100,000 employees and 8,000 apprentices generated net turnover of nearly 14 billion Euro.

The skilled crafts with their seminal, safe jobs are thus one of the most important sectors of the economy also in the City and Region Hannover. Besides offering a wide range of apprenticeship trades, the skilled crafts is also the economic sector that has the most family companies, with great flexibility, excellent customer proximity and a special awareness for sustainable, ecological business. The focus is on refurbishing, restoring, producing, repairing and safeguarding the security of supply services over a broad range, frequently across generations and directly on the spot.

Sustainable business in SME skilled crafts firms ensures a safe income for many employees and their families, together with a good work-life balance, while also being rooted in the region: in Hannover, Garbsen and Langenhagen and also in Laatzen, Seelze or Wedemark and beyond.

Key player in the energy and climate transition

Photovoltaic arrays in combination with electricity storage systems are in great demand. Further increases in electricity prices and the rapid transition to e-mobility, together with the prospect of green hydrogen in the long term, have once again increased the interest in PV battery storage solutions, among others. This applies to private households, local authorities and naturally also business companies. Skilled crafts firms contribute their know-how and facilitate holistic solutions that meet the individual needs of the customers. On the one hand, the skilled crafts are an irreplaceable crucial motor for implementing the energy transition with private, industrial and public-sector owners. On the other hand, skilled craftsmen also use these systems in their own companies.

It therefore makes sense for local skilled crafts businesses to convert their fleets to e-mobility and to gradually change over from using the traditional mains supply to regenerative energies to cover their company’s energy needs. This is also an economically viable investment: two different kinds of funding are available from the federal and state governments with direct subsidies and loans, as well as regional players. At the same time, from 2023 sales tax on installations of photovoltaic array solar systems is being reduced to zero. This applies to arrays with a gross output of up to 30 kW (peak), installed on or near residential buildings, public buildings and buildings that serve the general interest. Rebates are also available for parts that are essential for operating the array, as well as electricity storage systems. At the same time, exemptions are being introduced for taxation on revenue, regardless of how the generated electricity is being used.

Enhancing sustainability in companies

Finally, companies not only implement customer projects that make a contribution to sustainability, but as entrepreneurs they also focus on the development of their own business, with Hannover Chamber of Skilled Crafts as a strong partner at their side. Experts support all corresponding processes, providing mobility and energy counselling free of charge. The central management instrument in this context consists of the Sustainability Navigator Skilled Crafts, developed on the basis of the criteria in the German Sustainability Code. The Navigator was recently awarded the Hermann Schmidt Price 2022 as the best digital sustainability project. Developed by the Chambers of Skilled Crafts, trade associations and skilled crafts companies, it can be implemented without any problems in all trades. The portfolio is rounded off by the e-tool of the SME initiative Energy Transition and the Sustainability Guideline.

The Skilled Crafts Campus run by Hannover Chamber of Skilled Crafts in Garbsen is one of the largest initial and advanced training centres of the skilled crafts in North Germany. Inter-company apprentice instruction sessions are offered here under one roof with the courses for master craftsmen focussing on the industrial-technical sector. The Academy of the Skilled Crafts offers a range of advanced further training courses that are open to all sectors. Finally, the Institute of the Dental Technician Skilled Crafts Lower Saxony e. V. and the Centre for Environmental Protection are also based here.

There are around 100 specialist workshops, laboratories and theory rooms on around 65,000 square metres, used every year by about 14,000 people from the area covered by the Chamber and from the whole of Germany. People attending the courses can find accommodation in the guest house operated by the Project and Service Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hannover Chamber of Skilled Crafts. The facilities also include a modern conference centre with stateof- the-art facilities, which can also be hired by external customers.

The skilled crafts offer many entry possibilities and career prospects. These include the “BerufsAbitur” (vocational A-levels) where participants start vocational training to qualify as a journeyman in a dual training concept that lets them complete their secondary education at the same time, as well as the traditional apprenticeship to the initial qualification level with the option of becoming a master craftsman, which is the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree. Finally, there is also the possibility of taking a three-pronged degree course in skilled crafts management or craft design. It covers a period of 4.5 years, resulting in the qualification as a journeyman and a master craftsman as well as a Bachelor’s degree. There are no limits to the career possibilities.