Federal Minister of Labour Andrea Nahles attended the meeting of the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers in Beijing on 12 and 13 July. The meeting focused on international strategies for good work, decent employment opportunities and improved employability. The topics of education and training in particular were also discussed. In this context, Federal Minister Nahles commented on the changes in today's world of work, saying:
In my opinion, sustainably ensuring the employability of everyone in the labour market is truly one of the most important challenges of our time. The structure change brought about by the digital technologies requires that we make sure that the knowledge and skills we have are up to date and that we learn new things. This is not a one-time effort, but something we have to do again and again. As G20 Labour and Employment Ministers, we should therefore discuss the issue of the future of work in greater detail.
Labour Minister Nahles also highlighted the importance of international trade unions, employers and civil society groups to the G20 process. She said that the social partners from labour and management and the civil society stakeholders had put important topics on the international agenda in recent years, e.g. strengthening the position of women in the workforce and the integration of migrants and refugees into the labour market. She added that it was necessary to build on this in the future G20 process.
In bilateral talks with a number of labour ministers from the G20, Minister Nahles was able to go into more detail on these issues. Other main topics of the talks included strengthening sustainable global supply chains and fighting youth unemployment.