forces in motion

From the industrial mechanic-to-be to the chemical technician through to the management assistant for office management – that was the bandwidth of trainees taking the opportunity to see the bigger picture when participating in the exchange program “Trainees go USA”. For six to twelve weeks, the trainees stayed in the US as scholarship students. They attended courses at college, completed internships in companies and got to know the American world of employment and living. “Trainees go USA” is offered by the Joachim Herz Foundation in cooperation with the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, the Hamburg Institute for Vocational Education and Training and the German-American Chamber of Commerce USA South.

With “Trainees go USA”, the Joachim Herz Foundation wants to close a gap. As opposed to students, trainees have far too few options to gain work experience abroad. “For our scholarship students their stay in America was a valuable experience. They brought back lots of fresh impetus to their training companies in Bavaria and Hamburg,” tells Andrea Pauline Martin, Deputy Chief Executive of the Joachim Herz Foundation.

The Bavarian Undersecretary of State for Education, Georg Eisenreich, acknowledged the project “Trainees go USA” to be a role model. “We want to show that work experience abroad fits perfectly in vocational education and training in the dual system, which enhances the attractiveness of our professions requiring formal training even more. In addition, it makes the quality of our vocational education and training better known abroad,” explains Eisenreich.

This program was the opportunity for one of our trainees as a construction mechanic, Mr. Sascha Melinz, to gain a ten-week work experience abroad as a scholarship student in spring 2017.

For more information about Sascha’s experiences in the USA, please see his report.