Hardly anybody knows their occupation, yet almost everybody knows their work: geomatics engineers are the heads behind the navigation system in the car, the world map above the kitchen table and the bicycle trail map on the front rack.
André Lange, 18, and Meik Siebel, 29, are the first to train towards becoming a geomatics engineer at the Landesbetrieb Straßenbau Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalian federal state company for road construction) in Cologne. The new vocational training profession has been introduced only as recently as 2010. It displaces the outdated vocational training course for cartographers.
The first year of apprenticeship corresponds with that of a surveying technician. "Currently, we spend four days a week on motorways and building sites and do our own surveying", says Siebel. "That way we learn where the geographic data is obtained, which we later process."
Using special software, Siebel and Lange evaluate the data on the computer and compile maps, which then are used by road construction planers, road maintenance depots, police stations and logistics enterprises. When not doing their own surveying, they source the required data from the road information database North Rhine-Westphalia, for instance.
"The times of engraving, ink and watercolours are over. Geomatics engineers work with modern computer programmes", says Klaus-Ulrich Komp from the company Eftas Fernerkundung Technologietransfer in Münster. With his colleagues, he translates land survey results, aerial and satellite photographs and statistical surveys into maps, plans or even three-dimensional images. The results are used in very disparate fields: in environmental protection, agriculture, road construction. Mobile communication providers likewise use the work rendered by geomatic engineers. "With corresponding maps, mobile communications network providers can, for example, localise potential dead spots", says Komp.
Career perspectives are very good
The vocational training course for geomatics engineers takes three years and requires in-company training and vocational school attendance. According to the German Federal Employment Agency, most apprentices have a university entrance qualification. Udo Stichling, President of the Deutscher Dachverband für Geoinformation (German governing body for geographic information), summarises the job requirements: enjoyment in working with modern technology, no fear of numbers and a basic understanding of geometry and mathematics. Salaries vary between 500 and 900 Euro pre-tax per month, the entrance salary after completion of the apprenticeship averages around 2000 Euro pre-tax. The career perspectives are very good.
"The skilled labour shortage has affected also the geographic industry. Both the authorities and private businesses urgently need qualified skilled staff", says Stichling. "From route planer to smartphone app - the demand for geographic data is constantly increasing." Geomatics engineers can find jobs with engineering offices, cartographic publishing houses or with media agencies, to name a few examples.
The apprentices not only learn to collect and visualise geographic data, they deal also with customer advisory service and marketing of geographic data. In their work, they always need to stay focused on the final purpose of the respective data and their representation. "If, for instance, we create a map for a mobile navigation system to be used in a car, the driver needs to see the course of the road, but it is of lesser relevance to him, whether there are trees growing on the roadside", explains geomatics apprentice André Lange. Yet for the colleagues at the Landesbetrieb road construction office, this is an important bit of information.