'Fun leads to success’ as a motto has led to Münstermann’s successful award of the Colemann Publishing House 2015 Precision Mechanics Prize. A project involving all the trainees at Münstermann has led to this prize giving ceremony. Trainees involved in different trade training, courses and types of schooling were responsible for a project lasting a year, in which a go-kart was designed, developed and produced.
To begin with was the consideration of how the trainees could be assigned with the individual responsibility of a collective project. The aim was to give each of the project participants the opportunity of getting to know all production processes at Münstermann.
Job training at Münstermann
Not only the obligatory tasks play an important role during the training but also the pleasurable sides in the form of additional voluntary challenges. Apart from the participation in training sessions or courses, in-house English lessons and practical training in companies in foreign countries the trainees also take part in extra-mural education. These sessions are often perceived initially as unimportant for the company and appear at first sight as unusual. Examples are presentations given by the trainees to school classes in English of their experiences in foreign countries when on detachment, communal dinners under the supervision of a qualified lady restaurant manager (basic rules of etiquette at the dinner table, cultural features and others) and trainee barbecue evenings. These activities are greatly appreciated by the trainees. Motivation and enjoyment at work result and produce the desired and necessary successes. The associated team spirit is experienced in many departments during the years of training and is taken for granted.
The go-kart project
The go-kart project was designed so that the trainees could independently buy a motorcycle in order to be able to make use the engine, design and develop the kart and finally organise the production of the vehicle. The overall project management had the task of organising the missing resources such as, for example, the know-how required concerning the design of the brakes and whether to use internal Münstermann or external capabilities.
Young people are very creative and wish to employ their own ideas: a good basis for successful coexistence. With this joint project a community of common interest was formed, which pursued the aim with great interest and finally proudly presented the finished spray-painted vehicle on time to the whole Münstermann team at the annual end-of-year celebration.
Quotations from trainees
Leon Rupe, Dual Course of Studies
There is not just one highlight that I can bring to the fore but it is the whole training programme in itself. Be it the projects, which I worked on independently, my four-week practical training in a foreign company, or the involvement in current customer projects: all of this clearly demarcates my training at Münstermann from a normal training plan!
Sophia Klein, Dual Course of Studies
Conversations with fellow pupils at the vocational technical training college have shown me that such a varied training course in other companies is not a matter of course. What is important for the implementation of the projects, for example, is the practical link from practical work experience in the Production Department. The acceptance as an engineer in the man’s world was also from the start no problem!
Christoph König, Trainee as a metalworker
To work on projects independently, to find possible solutions and put these into practice is especially exciting. One has an overall impression of the work in all departments from the project development in the group and one gets to know the areas of work of the fellow workers. Especially in the case of setbacks bringing the project back on track fascinated me.