Up, up and away
For three years now the Brose Group has offered its apprentices a placement abroad in one of its 15 locations worldwide. Every year, six to eight young people take advantage of this special training. “We want to make our junior staff fit for the future, since having a command of languages as well as being both mobile and independent are factors which are becoming more and more important in the modern professional world,” says. Horst Theil, head of apprentice training in the Brose Group, underlining the aims of this particular project: “For young people like our apprentices it is particularly easy to get to know people and to adapt to new surroundings. In this way, they not only play their part in creating our corporate culture worldwide, but also contribute to the success of the Brose Group.”
Brose invests much time and money in its apprentices. Training instructor Thomas Köhler likes to tells his pupils of the time he himself spent abroad. While working in Brose’s jigs and fixtures department, he was a “world traveler” for years and can recognize the many advantages: apart from the rapid progress made in speaking a foreign language, the young people become very much more cosmopolitan and independent. There is a chance of one of Brose’s apprentices to gain experience abroad for a whole year. At the moment Christoph Protzmann is at the Brose plant of Sta. Margarida in Spain. “The candidates applying for the much sought-after places have to show that they have a good academic and professional record. They must also display a great deal of independence, being able to act very much on their own initiative, “ is how training instructor Thomas Köhler describes the initial selection procedure. The final selection then takes place, once all the trainers have been consulted. This year, too, there will be six apprentices abroad being made fit for future tasks: Andy Balbus and Bettina Göhring (both energy electronics) in Coventry, Bastian Beetz in Sta. Margarida, Benjamin Plachetka in Detroit as well as Ricardo Ehrenpfordt (all mechatronics )in Querétaro. Kerstin Baumann (industrial clerk) will get to know Sta. Margarida by living and working there for a year from September on.
Here is what the apprentices themselves have to say
Rebecca Ramirez, industrial clerk, 20 years old, from Coburg, worked for nine weeks in Detroit, the centre of the American automotive industry. "In 1997 I had already paid a private visit to the Brose engineering and sales company in Detroit. The working world there made an impression on me at that time, because the mentality of the people is quite different. So I immediately applied in Coburg for a placement abroad. I was lucky and actually got a place in controlling. Thanks to the friendly support of the colleagues I learned a great deal and felt like I was in one big family. My aim is to transfer to Brose North America once I have finished my training and my exams. As I have an American passport, I am also allowed to work in the USA."
Ramona Löffler, apprentice in mechatronics, 22 years old, from Seßlach, also worked in Detroit. "First of all I found that the work in the workshop, where I was, took a bit of getting used to, as I was the only woman working among men. But later it was really good fun. We were mainly involved in making window-regulator prototypes. After I had done a run-through of the whole production process and was able to carry out demanding tasks within our team to a great extent by myself, the work proved to be particularly interesting and full of variety. I profited very much from the fact that everyone also took time to explain the theoretical part to me as well. Apart from the use of specialist terms, we had no real problem in understanding one another. I naturally used the weekends for extended sight-seeing tours. I visited Toronto and went on a trip to the Niagara Falls. It was my first time in America and I would go back again anytime for a limited period."
Bernhard Großmann, industrial mechanic, 19 years old, from Lichtenfels, was employed at the Mexican Brose plant in Queretaro. " We worked a lot - sometimes from eight o’clock in the morning to half past eight in the evening. Nevertheless, the working atmosphere was more relaxed and there was less stress than back home in Germany. I was mainly involved in reconstructing assembly facilities for power window regulators. But I also did maintenance jobs or gave support to my Mexican colleagues when optimizing production equipment for new window regulator drives. During my stay in Queretaro I lived with a Mexican colleague. In this way I was not only able to get to know quite different customs, but also to enjoy the great hospitality of the Mexicans. Before I started on my journey home after my six-week stay, I took a trip along the west coast to Puerto Escordito and spent a weekend in Mexico City. I could really imagine living in Mexico later on and working there for Brose."
Markus Schelhorn, apprentice in mechatronics, 19 years old, from Weidhausen, had a flying visit to to the plant at Sta. Margarida in Spain. " During my stay in Spain I worked in the development department for door systems and window regulators, setting up a test rig for checking the electronic functions of the door. We generally worked one hour longer than we do in Coburg. I found the flexible break times very practical, because you could adapt them as you wished to your work requirements. It was altogether a very interesting experience to get to know the working methods and the way of life in another European country. I spent most of my spare time with other people from Germany and China who were also on practical placements at Brose. I can really recommend taking the opportunity to have a stay abroad during your apprenticeship to everybody."
Michael Krause, tool mechanic, 19 years old, worked for some weeks at the plant in Coventry/ England. "The stay in our English plant was a very interesting experience for me. Within a short time I got to know people of different cultures and a quite different working world. I was in the test area producing mountings, for example, for precision dial gauges and side milling cutters. Like my predecessor from the year before I lived with a host family, too. This surpassed all my expectations, in particular with regard to the dubious pleasure of eating English food. I didn’t really get to taste this at all, as my hosts came from India and frequently cooked their own specialities."
