On 16 July 2015, Arburg confirmed its long-standing educational partnership with two local secondary schools, Falkenrealschule and Heinrich-Schickhardt-Schule, agreeing a set of shared goals. Arburg Managing Partner Renate Keinath and the two school principals, Stefanie Maier, Falkenrealschule, and Peter Stumpp, Heinrich-Schickhardt-Schule, met at the Top Job training and education fair in Freudenstadt's Kurhaus to sign the cooperation agreements. "This cooperative venture benefits both the schools and our company," said Managing Partner Renate Keinath, who is responsible for Human Resources Management at Arburg. "When they come to us, school-goers learn about what it is like to work in an innovative machine construction company and we also get to know potential trainees and future employees away from an interview setting." This is why it was important to continue the long-standing intensive cooperation with the schools and to place it on a firm footing by means of partnership agreements, she explained. In all, Arburg now has six education partnerships: these involve Falkenrealschule and Heinrich-Schickhardt-Schule in Freudenstadt, Werkrealschule Dornhan-Lossburg, the secondary schools in Dornhan and Lossburg, and the Teacher Training College in Freudenstadt.
Successful cooperation
Peter Stumpp, principal of Heinrich-Schickhardt-Schule, was delighted that the partnership agreement will define future activities as well as goals. He said that a few ideas had already been proposed. Stefanie Maier, principal of Falkenrealschule Freudenstadt, agreed and added: "Thanks to the cooperation with Arburg, our pupils not only gain vital insights into the world of work, but our teaching and administrative staff also gain from the intensive exchange and are able to gather valuable practical experience."Numerous projects offer an insight into the world of work
Arburg offers students many opportunities to get to know the wide range of training options available at the machine construction company and to sample the working atmosphere. The programme includes the annual Arburg information event and the company's participation in internal information exchange events at schools, the provision of work experience placements in various departments either during term or during the holidays, presentation of the various traineeships in the classroom and numerous individual projects with the schools. For example, the "Music Box" project was run in cooperation with the Falkenrealschule and was presented at the Top Job 2015 training and education fair: For six months, 13 students spent one afternoon each week at Arburg after school, developing and building a loudspeaker with amplifier for smartphones. They were supervised by first year trainees from the Electrical and Metalworking Department.Heinrich-Schickhardt-Schule and Arburg have been cooperating in the vocational training sector for several decades. Projects have also been implemented with the senior classes of the Technical College as part of the SIA Engineering Academy for Schools programme. A recent example of the work carried out here was the creation of the production documents, including working plans, parts lists and design drawings, for the building of a 1:32 scale model of a truck.
