Essen earned this status in the 19th century and has continued to develop it. Around 24,000 employees work in the fields of production, distribution and supply of energy, as well as energy technology. Leading international energy groups such as RWE, E.ON Ruhrgas, RAG and Evonik Industries have their headquarters in Essen, and the city’s expertise in this sector is complemented by a large number of small and medium-sized companies, as well as a wide range of education and research facilities, such as the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Haus der Technik event and seminar centre, the Gaswärme Institute and the Kraftwerkerschule power plant school. A number of important energy industry associations, such as VGB PowerTech e.V. and the Industrial Energy and Power Industry Association (VIK) are based in Essen, and the international energy exhibition, E-world energy & water, is held annually at the Messe Essen exhibition centre.

Essen is a key location for the German customer service industry. Over 4,000 employees are currently active at 50 call centres in Essen, in in-house call centres or call centre agencies. Experts anticipate further, above-average growth rates in the field of Customer Relations Management (CRM) in the coming years. Essen has ideal opportunities as a corporate location. This was revealed in a corporate survey conducted by Call Center Akademie Essen ComIn Genius – one of the first academies of its kind in Germany, founded in 1997. Over 90 percent of the CRM companies located in the city would choose the location again if given the choice, the experts state. An association to reinforce this sector further has recently been established, Verein Call Center Essen e.V..

With approximately 35.000 employees, Essen is a centre of the construction industry, with renowned, often globally-active construction companies such as HOCHTIEF AG and many different providers of construction and building services. Many of the major companies located in Essen, such as ThyssenKrupp AG and Evonik Industries, have combined their real estate activities into independent real estate companies. In addition, Essen also boasts many property services companies offering a broad range of highly-specialised services: facility management, software development, building services, financial services and architecture are just a few examples.

Essen is one of Germany’s leading education centres. Around 5,000 teachers are employed at 187 general education facilities and 12 vocational colleges, attended by over 89,000 students. More than 300 institutions and private companies complement the economic factor ‘education’, providing jobs for 16,500 employees, a number that continues to rise. Establishments supporting the broad education and training sector are the Campus Essen at the University of Duisburg-Essen with around 1,500 tutors, the Folkwang institute of higher education, the Education Park, the HdT House of Technology, the Krafwerkerschule power plant school, the BildungsCentrum der Wirtschaft education centre, the irebs-Immobilienakademie property academy, the RGS ECON - Ruhr Graduate School of Economics and the Zollverein School of Management and Design.
Two models enjoy role model character and are co-ordinated by Essener Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft mbH economic development agency: The Verein zur Förderung der Zusammenarbeit von Schulen und Wirtschaft Essen e.V., SWE for short, is an interface between schools and industry. ESE (European Schools Essen) is a non-profit organisation consisting of eleven state schools. Its aim is the promotion of vocationally-oriented training, flexibility and multilingual skills at school, increasing the students’ prospects in the employment market. Each individual school is certified ‘European School in North Rhine-Westphalia’ by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.