Promoting STEM, safeguarding the future: How we are shaping change

1,049,902… No, those aren’t the lottery numbers for next Saturday – it’s the total number of STEM students enrolled at German universities during the winter semester of 2023/2024. Admittedly, this is not a particularly remarkable fact. When you know that almost 2.9 million people in Germany are at university, however, it reveals that one in three students is studying a subject relating to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM. Additionally, a large number of apprentices are aiming to build a future in these areas. For a company like Merck, these numbers initially appear to indicate a great deal of potential. That’s not quite true, however, as the high number of STEM students, trainees and talented individuals should not obscure the current shortage of skilled workers. When identifying talented staff to strengthen our company in the future, quantity makes it harder to find the right quality. Therefore, we need to answer the following questions:  - How do we find the right people for Merck? - How can we win over future generations? - How are we seen by young people who are also looking for purpose outside of work?

For the apprenticeships of tomorrow: Our new Learning Center is open

Identifying talented people early on and supporting them are among our company’s most important tasks. And not only because it ensures we can always develop the best products and generate optimum results: We also have a responsibility to offer young people the best possible conditions for their later careers. Therefore, I am all the more delighted about our new Learning Center that opened in Darmstadt on August 30. The inauguration was a really special event for me personally as the state-of-the-art Learning Center – an investment of more than € 70 million – marks a decisive step toward the future for Merck.

Our more than 500 apprentices in the STEM field now enjoy even more freedom for creativity – in a transparent, interdisciplinary and communicative environment.

We have a lot of work to do

These new, interdisciplinary approaches to training are more important to us than ever. As a global company with numerous co-operations and educational initiatives in Korea, the United States, Taiwan, and elsewhere, we recognize significant challenges in the education system and among young talents: drops in academic performance in recent years, difficulties in getting qualifications gained abroad recognized and students being overwhelmed by the sheer variety of professions to choose from. More than a third of STEM students fail to complete their course. In addition, the number of female STEM students is still far too low. We all have a lot of work to do in this area – not just here at Merck, but in all sectors and companies relating to STEM.

Promoting talent early and in a variety of ways – with targeted initiatives

But why is there an urgent need for action in the STEM sector? Just to safeguard the existence of our Group? Certainly not; it’s all about the big picture. Or to put it more precisely, it’s about what we often forget when talking about international companies: Our innovations, which are predominantly developed by people with a STEM background, tackle global challenges such as climate change and digitalization to safeguard the future of humanity. We employ people who work, indirectly or directly, on curing cancer. Or they perform research to develop more powerful yet also resource-conserving computer chips.

This is why we support teaching staff, schools and universities all over the world with a huge range of on-site initiatives to successfully promote young talent while also providing more general support. We go into kindergartens and schools to boost STEM education in early childhood. Moreover, we advise STEM students early on so they can make the right career choice for them. Further incentives for STEM students at Merck include postdoc positions, STEM financial assistance programs, Future Insight events, the annual Innovation Cup, and Discovery Days. To familiarize them with different cultures and ways of working, we currently send around 40% of our apprentices to subsidiaries abroad for three months. By the way, I was one of the very first employees worldwide to supervise the international deployment of a student pursuing a cooperative degree program to Singapore many years ago.

But we also know that the target group itself enjoys the highest level of credibility. For more than ten years, our approach has incorporated the peer-to-peer principle, i.e. the idea of designating apprentices and employees as ambassadors in order to address their peers and experts directly – honestly and on equal terms, far away from big marketing budgets. As well as preserving the integrity of our corporate mission, we also contribute to important values such as “purpose” or “impact” by doing so.

We have learned: Why we need to move away from old clichés

Dispelling existing clichés plays a crucial role in how we are perceived by STEM prospects. One example of these is the idea that the chemical industry is utterly inflexible in its processes, pollutes wastewater and is not interested in ethical approaches. Of course, here at Merck we know that none of this is true. Anyone who takes a closer look knows about the incredibly strict environmental regulations we are subject to worldwide or how clear our ethical codes are – also in the area of digitalization.

More than ever before, our task must therefore be to use true stories and emotions from our company to convey to the next generation of talent that alongside being the world’s oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company, we are primarily a cutting-edge science and technology Group with a global impact. A company that not only uses the latest AI tools and innovations to tackle subjects such as sustainability, data and digital technologies, but also places a key focus on employees and their needs, dreams and plans. By offering individual working time models, personal development plans, attractive benefits, a comprehensive range of research grants, individual programs, and more, we demonstrate that people, their life situations and their interests always determine our actions – but also the requirements we place on talented STEM specialists.

Collaboration instead of competition: an important training objective

To finish off, I would like to address a topic that is particularly close to my heart. In order to attract the most talented and highly qualified experts to help us solve global tasks, we need to let go of the competitive mindset as an industry – and not only in the apprenticeship market. Instead, we should forge collaborations that incentivize STEM talent to choose our sector. One argument for this is the range of initiatives started by us, such as the Sustainability Hub research platform (in cooperation with the Technical University of Darmstadt) or Ausbildungsradar (“apprenticeship radar”), a platform for recommending qualified applicants. However, I also mean cross-sector collaborations that can help young STEM specialists secure their dream job rather than laying obstacles in their path – whether through joint support programs or valuable exchange. To make this a reality, we need to find ways to bring together everyone involved: companies, universities, chambers of commerce, and politicians. If we succeed in thinking in a more open and interconnected way at this level, we will not just find the right talent that we all need, but also send an important message to society at large: We work better when we work together.