The 52-year-old had formerly been President of the Federal Post & Telecommunications Agency and held various political positions. The proven labour market expert intends to focus her future work on ensuring the sufficient supply of both skilled and non-skilled workers. "The purpose is always the same, namely to provide work for the unemployed and employees or to keep them in work", Nahles explains. Whilst mobilising workers within the country is one approach, she maintains that this will not be sufficient to secure the demand for skilled workers. "We need more labour migration. It is also important not to focus just on successful occupational integration: if we want to keep people in the country, we must not underestimate the importance of social integration," Nahles says.
Another area of focus for the new Chairwoman would be digitisation and automation. Nahles goes on to explain that "the BA has come far for a public administration body, but we can still do more. It's all about providing people with straightforward, modern way to get into contact with authorities, and to disencumber our own staff at the BA by automating routine tasks."
In starting her work as Chairwoman in May, Andrea Nahles visited several regional directorates, employment agencies and jobcenters to gain an impression of the situation on the ground. The Board Chairwoman's responsibilities include budgeting, IT, the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and strategy.