Mündersbach, Germany, 10^th August 2011

EWM launches training campaign

This year alone, 16 young people will begin their training at one of the region’s largest companies

EWM, the leading German manufacturer of highly innovative welding technology, is training up its next generation of employees. This year alone, 16 young people will begin their technical or commercial training at the company’s headquarters in Mündersbach after the summer holidays, bringing the number of trainees EWM is employing and preparing for their future careers to a total of 28. The globally operating company will be taking all the trainees who completed their training this year on as permanent employees. “We do everything we can to retain our trainees within the company”, says Susanne Szczesny-Oßing, Managing Director of EWM Hightech Welding GmbH. “It isn’t easy to find qualified specialists to employ in our home region, so we are placing increased emphasis on providing our own training.”

And training has a long tradition at EWM. The firm is considered one of the largest companies providing vocational training in the region. In the last five years alone, almost 50 young people prepared for their careers here. After having to limit recruitment in 2009 during the severe economic crisis, the Mündersbach company is now stepping up its efforts to support young talents again. “We offer all our trainees excellent career prospects in an international business”, confirms Szczesny-Oßing, “and are happy to make them part of our EWM family for as long as possible.”

This year, five young people will begin training as electronics technicians for devices and systems, three as metal dressers, two as technical product designers and two more as warehouse clerks, while on the commercial side EWM is training one industrial clerk and two business administrators. There is also a graduate of the dual degree course in electrical engineering, who is working in each of EWM’s departments and completing the normal vocational training during the practical phases of the course; these phases are interspersed with study blocks at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences. EWM as his employer sees the dual degree course as an excellent option which the company continues to include in its training plans.

The family-managed business considers extensive vocational training just as much a part of its core values as providing further training for all its other employees through a wide range of courses, from a company-owned training workshop, through in-house training provided regularly by EWM trainers to convey theoretical knowledge within the firm, to English lessons, which are very important to EWM due to its international orientation. “Our employees are our capital”, states EWM Managing Director Szczesny-Oßing. “To continually encourage and support them in developing their skills is however not purely a business decision; we see it as a normal aspect of our relationship with the people around us.” The above-average results the trainees achieved in their final exams proved the benefit of this commitment, she added.

These 16 young men and women will be starting their training at EWM, the leading manufacturer of highly innovative welding technology, this year. Managing Director Susanne Szczesny-Oßing (fourth from left in the photograph) is hoping to retain them all within the company in the long term. With almost 50 trainees in the last five years alone, EWM is one of the largest companies providing vocational training in the region.