A concert harp requires about 1,500 hand polished individual parts as well as a good ear for music and a certain degree of ability to play the instrument. Makers of plucked musical instruments have to be able not only to build an instrument, but also to assess its sound. In addition to building guitars and harps, the range of their work includes also production of mandolins, lutes, zithers and banjos.
The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), on behalf of the federal government and in co-operation with the social partners and business practice experts, has updated the three-year vocational education and training course to the latest state of the art so as to better reflect the increased demands, in particular with regards to the building of electronic instruments such as electric guitars, as well as the various fields of guitar and harp building.
The modernisation substitutes the 17-year-old regulation for the vocational education and training programme for makers of plucked instruments. The new differentiation between the two fields of "guitar making" and "harp making" reflects the different production processes required for these two most important instruments. Within harp making, there are also the historic baroque harp and the Celtic harp, in addition to the concert harp. Since the demand for electronic plucked instruments has increased, this is taken into consideration in the new regulation by provisions for the independent occupational field of "mounting sound pickup systems".
The apprenticeship requires manual skills and good hearing. Fine motor skills are needed in addition to fine-tuning the sound. For instance, building a concert harp includes the precise drilling of rivet holes of 1/100 mm.
Broad range of career advancement options
Makers of plucked instruments mainly work in small and medium-sized enterprises specialising in the building of musical instruments, yet some find employment with musical instrument shops that have their own repair workshop or with the musical instrument restoration departments of museums.
Subsequent to successful completion of the apprenticeship, the occupation offers a broad range of career advancement options. For instance, there is the qualification as certified master craftsman for plucked instruments and the option of becoming self-employed with one's own workshop. Moreover, after completing the dual vocational education and training programme for makers of plucked instruments and three years of professional experience, there is the option of completing a "Wood Technology" bachelor degree course at the Wood, Energy & Construction Department at the Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences.
15 apprenticeship contracts for makers of plucked instruments in total were recorded in 2013. The apprenticeship wage averages at 626 Euro gross per month.
Specialist classes across federal state borders are currently available at the "Staatliche Berufs- und Berufsfachschule Mittenwald" (Bavaria) and at the "Berufliches Schulzentrum für Technik und Hauswirtschaft Reichenbach", branch centre Klingenthal (Saxony).
In the course of modernising the vocational training regulations, the corresponding framework curriculum for vocational colleges was likewise revised by the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK - Standing Conference of Education Ministers).
The modernised vocational training regulations became effective as per 1 August 2014.