Below are three recent reports on the cultural enrichment of Germany, all translated by Hellequin GB.

The first article describes the failure of a model project in Stuttgart that was intended to train culture-enrichers to become nurses.

From the Baden-Württemberg news site BW24:

“Political signal” with refugees in nursing training becomes a €1.3 million debacle

The Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart offers special nursing training for refugees. But the project flops: Almost everyone fails the final exam.

Stuttgart — There is a shortage of nursing staff in Germany — according to an analysis by the competence center for securing skilled workers, at least 35,000 positions are vacant. Baden-Württemberg is not excluded from this nationwide problem. The shortage was already known before the Corona pandemic put undue strain on the health system. Currently, the burden is driving those responsible to desperate measures. Even retired professionals should be helping out in the Southwest’s pandemic.

As early as 2017, the Robert Bosch Hospital had an idea to counter the nursing shortage. The clinic in Stuttgart launched a model project: special training for nurses. The class was to consist of both Germans and refugees. The final exams of the first year took place in the summer of 2021. But, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports, only four out of a total of nineteen women and men mastered them. The reason seems banal, but reveals a grandiose misplanning.

Nursing training at the Robert Bosch Hospital: Expensive model project with great approaches fails

In principle, it can always happen that trainees do not pass a final examination. However, a failure rate of almost 80 percent indicates a failure elsewhere. As the FAZ writes, there were also participants who dropped out of the training before the final exam. The framework for training as a nurse looks great on paper: Among other things, refugees from Syria, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan would get a professional future. In addition to the theory and practice of nursing, the participants received training in intercultural competence. This is also one of the reasons why the training lasted a year longer than usual and required more staff.

This was made possible by the Robert Bosch Foundation, which supports the hospital. It contributed €1.3 million to the regular training costs, which are paid for by the hospitals with money from taxpayers and insured persons. The failure of the model project in Stuttgart was not due to financial bottlenecks or a fundamentally bad concept. Rather, a misjudgment of the required language skills caused the high failure rate in the final examination.

Language skills for nursing training: Robert Bosch Hospital misjudges the necessary level

Because refugees who were selected for training as nurses at the Robert Bosch Hospital, they only needed to pass the A2 language test. The highest level of this classification is C2; there are six levels in total. A2 only means basic knowledge of the German language. The participants in the model project therefore started at a language level that was already rather inadequate without previous knowledge in the field of care.

The Robert Bosch Hospital was apparently not completely unconscious of this, because additional German courses were offered as part of the training in order to raise the language skills to a higher level. The problem: participation was voluntary and the course did not provide for any mandatory intermediate examinations. “Back then, after so many refugees had come to Germany, we wanted to send a political signal,” said Professor Mark Dominik Alscher, Managing Director of the Robert Bosch Hospital, to the FAZ. “That was well intentioned, but it didn’t work out well.”

Nursing training at the Robert Bosch Hospital: The model project ends after the second year

In the meantime, the Robert Bosch Hospital has evaluated the course and came to the conclusion that the principle of personal responsibility was set too high. With a cost of €1.3 million, this is a very expensive finding for the Robert Bosch Foundation. They are the majority owner of the Bosch Group, which finances itself through its dividends. Because the automotive supplier was recently struggling with the transition to e-mobility, the foundation’s funding volume also decreased. Even for a well-funded foundation, €1.3 million is no small thing.

Nevertheless, with the second year of the model project, the Robert Bosch Hospital can prove that it has learned from its mistakes. It should have its final exam in the summer of 2022. In addition, trust in the project no longer seems to be all that great — although the number of new refugees in Baden-Württemberg has recently doubled. There is no third year.

Afterword from the translator:

Not only is there a lack of basic knowledge of the German language, but also a serious lack of basic schooling as a prerequisite for nursing training. €1.3 million, partly money from the taxpayers, wasted, just to be able to present some successes of unskilled mass immigration.

Was the failure only due to the German language skills and basic schooling? Or were there other reasons that were swept under the carpet, because one or the other “conspiracy theory” would be confirmed?

The second article reports on the new government’s promise to bring in more “refugees”, and its inability to keep that promise.

From the Berlin tabloid B.Z.:

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