Student – Trainee – Technician

“High qualifications are very important to us”

Only a stone’s throw apart - the secondary school and PROFILMETALL GmbH in Hirrlingen. One still only knows rather little about the other. Managing partner Daniela Eberspächer-Roth therefore invited the male and female students, as well as the secondary school students in Haigerloch, to come to visit the company.

The company has been training machine and production-line operators, professional warehousemen and industrial managers for a little over two years. “This day not only helps us to make our company, but also the opportunities   we can offer young people, known to the schools around us”, says Eberspächer-Roth. Today’s students are the trainees of tomorrow, and the technicians of the day after tomorrow. She and her husband, Manfred Roth, own and manage the business. High qualifications are especially important to them, “80 percent of the people employed with us work in the profession they learned”, explained the business woman to the students.

A variety of interests ensures the business

It is quite alright that not everyone shares the same interests and capabilities. “The different professions for head and hand-oriented people ensure the business in a mid-sized company. Most important are a heart and enthusiasm for one’s assigned job”, says the entrepreneur and because the current trainees themselves know best what they learn and do in their profession, they guided the 8th and 9th-graders through the production hall. This is where precision profiles and garnish mouldings are produced from gigantic sheet metal roles which are then   used in refrigerators, the automotive construction field and control cabinets, to give a few examples.

A day to test the future

The visitors could put their own skills to the test. The task was to form and bend a Porsche from a mere strip of sheet metal with pliers. “This was not as easy as it looked”, they noted and were all the more concentrated at work. Marcel, an 8th-grader in the secondary school was excited, “I could very well see myself going into a technical profession one day”. In contrast, Michael stated firmly, “it’s not for me.”- This is just what these days are there for, i.e.to help work out which profession one wants to enter one day.

On-site perspectives

The teachers of both schools were truly pleased with PROFILMETALL’s offer. Both Sarah Sailer and Ole Schulz, both teachers in Hirrlingen, reported the experience as being an outstanding example. One student for instance subsequently submitted an application for an internship with the local carpenter and is undergoing his apprenticeship there today. Contacts with the local companies are the key, as prospects for the future develop out of them for one or the other student. Bernd Heiner, a teacher in Haigerloch, sees yet another advantage, “it is through such conversations with entrepreneurs that we get   feedback about the practical side of things, which   helps us tp teach the theory more according to the business world’s actual needs thus enabling us to prepare the students better.”

IHK service

If you are interested in receiving more information on such a school-company-co-operation and/or the IHK campaign ‘Economy goes to School’, please contact Ida Reichenecker, IHK Reutlingen, telephone + 49 (0)7121/201-123 or by email: reichenecker@reutlingen.ihk.de.


Photos: IHK

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