It wasn’t really a big deal—the assignment that morning two years ago: “Go over to your new department and ask the foreman if you can start a few days early.” That’s what training manager Fabian Schroth told him. Fabian, who was in his second year of training at the time, turned around and asked, “And how will I recognize him—the foreman?” “I was told, ‘He’s wearing a striped shirt.’ But when I got to the department, pretty much everyone was wearing a striped shirt. So I had to ask around until I found the right person. That was a hassle.”
Fabian Schroth has since completed his apprenticeship as a construction mechanic; he is now the vice chair of the Youth and Apprentice Council (JAV) at the crane manufacturer Terex/Demag in Wetter—together, they’ve improved this process. Today, everyone can find a contact person more quickly, thanks to the “ABBA folders”—the “training officer folders”—that Fabian introduced together with the JAV.
Training Officer Folders. A cumbersome term. But the idea behind it is simple and useful: “We thought about how we could thoroughly prepare the trainees for their assignments in the respective departments,” says Fabian Schroth. With the ABBA folders, they’ve succeeded—thanks to them, all young colleagues at Terex are always well-prepared and informed. And they receive support during their assignments in the departments.
Fabian Schroth, 23
“I remembered how lost I sometimes felt walking around the company as a trainee. That had to change.”
Important Information
The folders are standard DIN A4 folders containing all the important information about the department the apprentice is currently working in: addresses, phone numbers, details about who the foreman or forewoman is, how many people work in the department, and how the department is structured. Every trainee—and there are currently around 100 at Terex/Demag—receives a specially tailored folder before starting in a department, allowing them to prepare for the department in advance.
“But the folders don’t just contain information about the departments,” says Fabian Schroth. “They also document important details about the trainees’ current status.” For example, they note whether a young colleague holds a crane operator’s license or whether a young colleague has already completed a hydraulics course. “This gives the foreman a better overview and allows them to provide targeted support. That alone is worth a lot.”
Targeted Support
But that’s not all. Each folder also includes what are called “learning objective assessment forms.” Another long word. Another important thing. What’s behind it? No text, no test, no quizzes. Instead: discussions between trainees, training coordinators, and the foreman or forewoman of a department about the current status of their vocational training. “These discussions focus on the trainees’ strengths and weaknesses, and on how to support them,” says Fabian Schroth.
The learning objective checklists serve as a good foundation for these discussions, he explains, giving everyone the means to monitor their own training. “The trainees are thrilled with the portfolios,” says the 23-year-old. “But without their approval, we wouldn’t have been able to advocate for the portfolios. And without the support of the works council, we wouldn’t have been able to push through their implementation.”
Young activists in workplaces everywhere are learning this lesson when they want to achieve something for apprentices: It can only be done together with their young colleagues. It’s only possible if the works council is involved and supports them.
Leander Hobusch, 23
“Personal support for our young colleagues was lacking. We urgently needed an additional trainer.”
Leander Hobusch, JAV chair at Sartorius Corporate Administration in Göttingen, relied on this support with his team—and as a result, they succeeded in getting management to approve the hiring of an additional trainer for the trainees at the pharmaceutical and laboratory supplies company. “In-house training for our trainees is provided by external instructors, while colleagues from the various departments are responsible for all organizational aspects of the respective training programs,” says the 23-year-old. The problem was that these colleagues were doing this work on a volunteer basis and often didn’t have the five hours per week they were actually supposed to dedicate to the trainees. “It was clear to us that we urgently needed an additional trainer.”
At first, the youth representative body’s appeals fell on deaf ears with management. “We had to develop a strategy for how we could achieve our goal.” During Youth Representative Council (JAV) meetings, they gathered arguments, and together with the trainees, they used every conversation with the training management to draw attention to the problem. At the same time, Leander Hobusch and his team spoke with human resources management to highlight the issue at that level as well.
“To ramp up the pressure, we then conducted a survey on the quality of the training program among all trainees. The results, which we also presented at a company-wide meeting, clearly showed that our young colleagues want more personalized support—and that this is only possible with an additional training position.” In the end, we got it. “You need staying power; you can’t let yourself get discouraged,” says Leander Hobusch.
Eduard Gertner, 22
“We trainees never had a clear idea of which department we’d be assigned to. With our training rotation schedules, that’s set to change.”
Eduard Gertner knows this, too. Since 2016, the 22-year-old has been the Youth and Apprentice Council (JAV) chair at the Simon Group, which employs 750 people at its location in the Rottweil district. Eduard Gertner trained here as an industrial clerk—and often had to switch departments during his apprenticeship, frequently without any advance notice. “On Friday, I was told that I had to move from Central Purchasing to Financial Accounting because someone there was out. We trainees never had a clear picture of which department we’d be assigned to or how long we’d stay there.”
Direct Discussions
Now, as JAV chair, Eduard Gertner is advocating for the introduction of “training rotation schedules”; these should clearly specify how long a trainee will be in each department. Only then can young colleagues prepare for their assignments in the various departments. “To do this, we need evaluation forms for both the administrative and industrial sectors that allow colleagues to get an overview of their training progress during discussions with the training management.”
They are currently in the process of designing such forms. It will still take a little while until these are finalized and implemented, says Eduard Gertner. He isn’t letting that discourage him. Everything just takes time.
