Germany's best trainers in 2019

Regardless of the area—be it teaching methods or digitalisation and innovation—engineering also performed well again in 2019 in the Capital business magazine's survey "Germany's best trainers". This is particularly evident in the 'chances of success' category which included assessment of completion rates, drop-out rates and employment rates as well as training and starting salaries. This is where the industry engineering sector leaves all other companies in the dust.

The best trainers of 2018

Companies awarded five out of five stars also included small enterprises such Bass GmbH (16 trainees), JW Froehlich Maschinenfabrik (12 trainees) and Roth Werkzeugbau (25 trainees). Gebr. Müller Apparatebau (Gemü) (60 trainees) was one of the medium-sized companies (500 to 2000 employees) which impressed the jury. "As a family business, Gemü attaches great importance to communicating with each other as equals," explains Katrin Engert, head of training at Gemü, to MM Maschinenmarkt. "Trainees are also given responsibility for projects early on in their training. This enables them to reach their potential and to put their skills to the test." Over the coming years, the aim is actually to further increase the number of trainees.

Chiron (121 trainees) is also looking to recruit the next generation from among their own ranks. "We need excellently trained young people to meet the challenges of digitalisation, programming and industry 4.0," explains Herbert Mattes, Chiron's head of training. "Digitalisation requires new or different qualifications in the world of work." In light of this, Chiron has adapted their training concept and made the training more digital overall. This means tablets for trainees, an online learning platform and the digital record book, just to name a few. This then promptly resulted in a maximum points total for the machine tool manufacturer in the design and innovation category.

Focus on digitalisation and networking

Dr. Maurice Eschweiler, executive manager at DMG Mori (400 trainees) is also convinced that "the future is digital and going forward there will be an even greater focus on networking and big data". In addition to an outstanding overall points total of 24, the company also achieved five stars in the digitalisation and innovation category as well as in trainee support. "In our Smart Education Centres trainees, work on actual customer orders at an early stage and across disciplines. That means they are required to produce complete machines," explains Eschweiler. "They also gain insights into other departments and participate in trips out to customers to become familiar with the overall life cycle of the machine tools."

Other companies which performed particularly well include Schunk GmbH & Co KG (250 trainees), Bauer AG (269 trainees, Dürr Systems AG (24 trainees) and Lenze (61 trainees). Lenze also believes digital learning is a particularly important and future-oriented trend. "Subsequent generations will have different needs and will use ‘new media’ in a different way than we do today," explains Thomas Czekanowski, Head of Education and Training. "We are adapting to this—also in order to provide individual support." The company also considers agile working environments and methods another trend. These are therefore also being integrated in the training concept.

2019 is now the third time that the Capital business magazine, the talent platform Ausbildung.de and HR marketing experts from Territory Embrace have honoured "Germany's best trainers". More than 600 personal managers with responsibility for around 127,000 trainees and dual students took part in the survey.