Trainee Program
Transworld Cargo actively seeks trainees to join its team. We provide a 2-year traineeship to qualified grade 12 graduates as per the requirements of the Commercial Advancement Training Scheme (CATS).
To apply, please contact the CATS Programme Office at www.catsnamibia.org, and mention your specific interest in Transworld Cargo.
Featured Article
Welcome to Germany
A new law is intended to promote the permanent immigration of skilled workers. Examples of young junior staff show the problems that professional integration entails.
The Namibian up-and-coming freight forwarder Senovia Katjiru knows the challenges of the German bureaucracy for foreign skilled workers.
The paperwork was a shock,” says Senovia Katjiru of her experiences with the Immigration authorities in Hamburg to the point. The up-and-coming forwarder from Namibia decided on a one-year job because Germany in southern Africa is known for efficiency and has a reputation for mastering tasks cleverly. "I wanted to take the opportunity to learn from the best," she says. But her enthusiasm was thwarted in the offices.
A response from the Senate to a question from the left-wing faction about the Welcome Center Hamburg, the central point of contact for the professional integration of immigrant specialists, recently showed how expandable the German welcome culture is: "At times, 6,000 emails to the department were unprocessed," says the website of the Hamburg State Association of the Left. Their spokeswoman for economic policy, Olga Fritzsche, criticizes: "This is how you scare off qualified people who are willing to learn." According to NDR, the backlog has now been significantly reduced.
For a year, Senovia Katjiru managed the Hamburg office of the Transworld Cargo (TWC) haulage company, which has its headquarters in Windhoek. Branch manager Karin Fischer works mainly from Austria. Before the 28-year-old Katjiru took over the position in Germany, she had completed the two-year part-time commercial training program CATS in the Namibian capital at TWC with a bachelor’s degree in logistics and supply chain management at the Namibia University of Science and technology completed.
She then worked as an account manager and export team leader in Windhoek. The young African woman thus fulfilled the requirements for qualified immigration. Skilled workers from abroad want to arrive in Germany. To do this, companies have to offer more than an attractive job. Fischer not only stood by Katjiru's side when dealing with bureaucratic hurdles. "Every Monday she asked about interpersonal experiences during Skype coaching and gave me tips for my free time," reports Katjiru. Her Austrian colleague invited her to a weekend trip to the Baltic Sea or to the snowy Alps for Christmas, business partners took her to the pubs or to go shopping – she never felt lonely. Her employer organized her central Hamburg apartment.
Immigration should be easier The caring nature of TWC director Norbert Liebich may have something to do with it. He himself came to Namibia from southern Germany and knows that immigrants don't just want to work, they want to feel comfortable. After 50 years abroad, he can't say much about the German welcoming culture, but welcomes the fact that "taking up work in Germany should be made easier".
At the beginning of July, the Federal Council passed the new Skilled Immigration Act: “Anyone with at least two years of professional experience and a professional qualification acquired abroad and officially recognized there can come as a skilled worker in the future,” says the federal government’s website. A recognized foreign university degree and a concrete job offer with a minimum salary in Germany entitle you to the EU Blue Card. This residence title is intended to promote the permanent immigration of academics. In Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ghana and Nigeria, centers for migration and development are to support regular migration for work and training purposes.
In view of the bureaucratic hurdles, studying in Germany seems to accelerate the start of a career. According to government plans “should it become even more attractive to come to Germany for vocational training or a course of study and to stay here”.
Break down language barriers
A cousin of Katjiru, who has been living in Bremen since 2021, is trying this: In September, Adelheid Katjiru will complete her master's degree in International Logistics & Supply Chain Management with an MBA at the HSB Hochschule Bremen and will continue to work in the Hamburg TWC office. The 29-year-old has been working there since an internship, which the English native speaker finds easy. But in everyday life, the language barrier was initially high:
"Everywhere only German is spoken, whether in the bank or in the grocery store." In her opinion, employees in public authorities should try to communicate in English. She now has B1 level, calls truckers or shipping companies in German.
Meanwhile, Wenzel Catima is constantly being addressed in English. The Windhoek masters the North German tongue stroke. When the manager of Catima Forwarding in Bassum near Bremen makes a call, no one notices that he is an immigrant. His dark skin color is only noticed in personal meetings, but he has hardly experienced racism in Germany for almost two decades, says the 39-year-old.
I wanted the chance to learn from the best - Senovia Katjiru, junior forwarder from Namibia
After completing the German Higher Private School in Windhoek, Wenzel Catima went to northern Germany as an au pair, where he met his current wife. After a year at business school, he got an apprenticeship at Fiege in Bremen. The prospective forwarding agent liked the fact that he didn't get any special treatment because of his origins - he wanted to "perform like everyone else and be seen as a logistician". He was also able to do this with subsequent employers such as DSV or Hellmann, where he completed the Chamber of Industry and Commerce exam to become a specialist in freight transport and logistics at the German Foreign Trade and Transport Academy while working.
The then father of two saw himself well equipped to gain forwarding experience at TWC in Namibia.
In his hometown he received an offer from TWC director Liebich to set up an office in Hamburg. In 2021, Catima finally became self-employed. With his dual training, he had the best prerequisites for this, but nationals from third countries without a German degree or professional experience can also set up a company in Germany.
Senovia Katjiru is now back working at TWC in Windhoek. Apart from the professional training, Liebich has noticed “increased self-confidence” in her. Colleagues often ask her if she's not dressed too lightly for the Namibian winter? "The German weather has made me strong," she replies with a smile and agrees with her boss that Germany has "enlarged her horizons enormously, both professionally and privately". (away)