"The metal sheets now are aligned at 90 degrees. I move the burner at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, have to move it backwards and forwards a bit so that the flux is distributed nicely and the welding seam looks good later on."
Ajlend Hamzagic sits at a workbench in the production hall of GSI SLV Duisburg (Gesellschaft für Schweißtechnik International), a vocational training workshop. The 27-year old is completing an apprenticeship as a qualified metal engineer here. An occupation that is entirely new in this form. It was established only a year ago, after the industry found there was a demand gap. Harald Herzigkeit is a training supervisor at GSI SLV Duisburg:
"In the past, there was the occupation of fusion welder. That was replaced and ceased to exist and then the industry realised, oh, we actually need the job of fusion welder. And then people from various disciplines got together and said, let's think about creating another occupation along similar lines."
And that is how the new occupation of qualified metal engineer originated. "We have combined eleven so-called old occupations, which in part derived from as late as the 1930s, and have created a new occupation while, of course, at the same time pursuing the question what competences such a qualified worker in the metal engineering field needs", says Irmgard Frank from the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Bonn. The BIBB becomes active whenever a vocational education and training occupation requires renewal or modernisation. Like in the case of the qualified metal engineer. The predecessor occupations, such as wiredrawer, spring maker and appliance assembler, had become obsolete.
Modernising an occupation takes about nine months
"When we receive a commission, we invite the social partners, that is, the employer and employee associations to name experts for the occupation in question. These experts then are called in and, together with the BIBB, develop the vocational education and training framework curriculum, that is, the occupational profile of that profession."
Yet it is a complicated process to render an occupation fit for the future. Those involved do not always agree. In the case of the qualified metal engineer, the unions had objections. The new apprenticeship is designed to take two years; that is too short for the unions. Irmgard Frank: "The employers do not agree with this, on principle. So we develop these processes without the social partners, without the employers."
Modernising an occupation takes about nine months. The involved parties repeatedly meet, while at the same time the federal states develop a guideline for the vocational colleges. Company visits are part of the process, so that the reformers understand the needs of other businesses. Heinz M. Klein works at GSI in Duisburg and has helped to develop the occupational profile for the qualified metal engineer:
"For example, we had a meeting in the Sauerland, where many businesses work in the wiredrawing sector, that's what it is called, and in this context we were able to visit such a business; up until then, I had no connection to that line of work, because I come from the field of welding engineering."
Trained ice cream specialist, office management assistant, mechatronics engineer for two-wheeled vehicles: These occupations have been newly created or modernised for the current training year. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs decides whether all that work was worthwhile and the new occupations be taught. Irmgard Frank says that sometimes an occupation does not get enacted, as it is called in the official jargon.
In the case of the qualified metal engineer, all went well. And apprentice Ajlend Hamzagic is happy to be able to train in this field: "We have been introduced to many things. Turning, milling, and I also was in the research and development department. It is rather comprehensive and diversified, I would say."