Central Europe is the automotive workshop of the continent and it has run out of local labour. These guides are organised by what an OEM plant or supplier is staffing — the whole plant shop by shop, a Tier 1 or Tier 2 supplier, the assembly line, maintenance and quality, a ramp-up to SOP, the station tests behind it — and link to the profession guides (operators, welders, CNC, mechatronics, vehicle technicians) and the country guides. Automotive is a child industry of our manufacturing hub.
Operational guides for automotive OEM plants and suppliers — recruitment programme, plant workforce by shop, Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier workforce, assembly and production, maintenance and quality, plant ramp-up to SOP, trade testing — each answering how to staff the operation and which countries sponsor which roles.
Central Europe is the automotive workshop of the continent and it has run out of local labour: Slovakia builds about a million vehicles a year — more per head than any country on earth — the Czech Republic about 1.4 million, Hungary hosts the EU's battery-cell plants, and Poland and Romania supply the components. Foreign nationals are about 22 % of all Czech employees. OEM plants and Tier 1 suppliers in these countries sponsor assembly and production operators on national permits; Germany and Austria sponsor the qualified trades their shortage lists name — mechatronics, machinists, welders, maintenance; Australia sponsors motor and diesel mechanics; the Gulf's assembly and after-sales networks sponsor the full mix.
Automotive hiring is a different discipline from ten pipefitters for a project: a Tier 1 plant needs 150 operators who all pass the same test, arrive in waves that match the SOP curve, and stay through the first model year. We run it as a programme — standard tests per station type, monthly interview rounds in Makati, permits batched by country, waves sized to your housing and induction capacity, team leaders in every wave, aftercare to month six. In September 2026 alone our Makati operation recruited about 200 machine and production operators and 100 CNC machinists among 629 positions for 25 employers.
Which roles can come depends on the country. Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania and Croatia: operators and trades. Germany and Austria: qualified trades only. Flanders and the Netherlands: no low-skilled production roles. Australia: mechanics and CSOL trades. Gulf: everything. Automotive is a child industry of our manufacturing hub; the welding and fabrication hub covers body-shop and component welding qualification in depth.
General information for employers, not legal advice. Operator and country requirements change; we re-verify before each mobilisation.