Goodbye to vocational training – hello to a future at Krones

When training approaches its end

The finishing line is now in sight for us trainees studying technical product design. The third year of training is slowly but surely approaching its end, and the final exams will soon be upon us.

I can look back on three wonderful years of training, during which, thanks to the time in the Training Centre and in the department of Krones AG, I matures into a skilled worker. The departments I spent time with were Labelling Technology and Filling Technology and Research and Development. In all departments, I was able to contribute, intensify and expand my knowledge in regard to planning, calculation, assessment, design and data updating.

At the city’s Vocational College I for Metal Technologies and Electrical Engineering in Regensburg, we received our theoretical training in the field of machinery and plant design. This principle is known as the dual system, since the training is provided by two different partners at two different locations. Thus the firm concerned and the vocational college create a balanced ratio between theory and practice for the trainees.

In terms of examinations, though, there’s still quite a lot to do before we’re all entitled to call ourselves skilled workers:

Soon, you see, the exam preparation phase begins for us in the Training Centre, in order to revise the material from three years of training together, and test it out against old final exam papers.

At “half-time” in our training, we were sitting the intermediate exam, which (unlike previously) already counts towards the final grade. In this exam, we were given an examination product with a theoretical and a practical part, which we handled using the Solid Edge ST6 CAD program. Now we’re set to take the second exam as well, where our specialised knowledge will once again be theoretically tested in all areas; this also includes sections on social studies and economics. In addition, a 70-hour project has to be documented, whose content constitutes either a modified, a new or a variant design. Besides the documentation, the project’s presentation and the subsequent technical interview are evaluated.

Structure of the final examination: Technical Product Designer – Machinery and Plant Design

So there’s still quite a lot to do before our training is completed – but very soon we trainees will together be able to look back on three years during which we saw the foundations laid for our successful future at Krones AG.