Siempelkamp Foundry takes on all graduates of the first partial qualification as foundry mechanic

Those who started the partial qualification as foundry mechanic at Siempelkamp Foundry on March 1, 2023 were looking for a long-term professional future perspective with a focus on practical further training. Now they have taken an important step into a new career.

19 participants of the intensive partial qualification as foundry mechanic, which was carried out for the first time nationwide, have successfully completed their training module and will start working at Siempelkamp Foundry in various specialised departments on 1 October. The Krefeld employment agency also contributed to the success of the measure by supporting the foundry in the search for participants and by financially supporting the measure. The successful completion and start into a new professional phase of life was celebrated on 29 September in the presence of the management, the works council and the project partners from the Teutloff Bildungszentrum at a small ceremony. The successful graduates also received their certificates.

Competences built up from materials science to quality assurance

"We are very proud of the participants of this partial qualification. Many of them passed the examination with "very good". This shows us with how much commitment they approached this further training and what this career milestone means to them," explains Dr. Georg Geier, Managing Director of Siempelkamp Foundry. The supervisors of the partial qualifiers around project manager Thomas Handke, but also many employees of Siempelkamp Giesserei, took a lot of time and trained the participants intensively in technical theory and practice in order to prepare them for their final examination. In the six months of their further education, the fresh graduates passed through a variety of specialist departments in order to learn competences in moulding processes with a focus on hand mould casting. At the "halfway point" of their partial qualification in June, they were already allowed to produce and cast their first own casting.

Important measure against the shortage of skilled workers - recommended for imitation

For Siempelkamp Foundry, the partial qualification is a lighthouse project that serves as a model for other companies because it has proven to be a real success and is an important step to counteract the shortage of skilled workers in trade and crafts. Particularly for people who previously could not imagine completing a full vocational training programme "in one go", the partial qualification offers a flexible opportunity to absorb one's own skills in short, practical portions and to already work with this knowledge in parallel. The Krefeld Employment Agency is also convinced of this and supports this way of training for employees and employers.

For Siempelkamp Foundry it is certain that the partial qualification as foundry mechanic will be offered again in 2024. "In the foundry we combine state-of-the-art technologies with the hundreds of years of experience of traditional craftsmanship. In this way, we set world records in casting and produce urgently needed components for digitalisation, energy transition and other future technologies. Skilled workers are therefore the most important asset we have. While they benefit from above-average pay, genuine integration - the participants in the partial qualification came from 8 different nations, such as Syria, the Maldives and Georgia - and a highly motivated project team, we get the urgently needed manpower to meet the high demand for our products," explains Dr Georg Geier.