“Talking Good” with Olaf Scholz

It is finally here! The first “Talking Good” episode is available to watch on FOCUS Online. In the pilot of the new video format, moderator Cherno Jobatey enters into a dialogue with Germany’s Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. Together, they discuss solidarity and social responsibility.

Many people are afraid of losing their jobs to digitization - and not finding new work. Olaf Scholz, German Finance Minister and Deputy Chief of the center-left SPD party, explains in the new FOCUS Online video talk how he wants to help these people.

"Everyone talks about problems. We talk about solutions."

Digitization will change the job market massively. Researchers at the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research (IAB) assume that around 1.3 million jobs will be lost by 2025 and 2.1 million new ones will be created. For many employees, this means new opportunities. And for many others, fear.

Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) says in "Talking Good" that he considers the topic "still completely misevaluated". At the same time, uncertainty is growing in Germany as in other western countries, says Scholz. "How will it be in ten or twenty years? Will I be able to work in my profession until retirement? What about my children, my grandchildren?"

Continuing education for a lifetime

Scholz refers to the logistics industry. "For example, if you're a trucker now - which is a proud profession - it can happen that your boss constantly asks you: 'Do you know another one? I don't have enough drivers?' and at the same time you read in the newspaper every day that there will soon be autonomous trucks. It's a very strange feeling. And that leads to uncertainty. "

Scholz, deputy chief of the SPD, therefore warns that society must make a promise to feel prepared for these developments. Specifically, he requests the opportunity for further training. Even as the head of a family at the age of 50, it should be possible to learn a new profession, demands Scholz. Through shared leadership in companies in the wake of the digital upheaval, he wants to ensure that the workforce is not simply replaced, but that employees are given the opportunity to stay through further training.

In "Talking Good", moderator Cherno Jobatey talks to different guests about societal problems and possible solutions. The whole show with Olaf Scholz can be seen here on FOCUS Online.

Johanna Schallehn

BurdaForward Communications

For more than eight years I have been writing texts about our company and our brands, organising trade fairs, talking to journalists and being chronically in far too many meetings. Whether at home or in the office - it doesn't get boring and sometimes I just put out the fire. If not, then I am most likely to be met in the mountains, with my daughter on the Isar or in my home country and the most beautiful city in the world: Hamburg.