German apprentices share what they’ve learned
Both say there are significant differences between German and U.S. workplaces.
Young German industrial apprentices Ben Berger and Jan Gaertner have a whole new outlook on the United States after spending a couple of months working at Voestalpine in Bartow County and Georgia Northwestern Technical College in Rome, respectively, for the past two months.
Berger, Gaertner and Christoph Gurok, who worked at Mohawk in Dalton, have just concluded their Herz Foundation-sponsored exchange apprenticeships in the United States and returned to Germany on Saturday.
Berger said the work at Voestalpine, an Austrianbased automotive supplier, was very clearly a European production model using American workers.
“It’s a good company and they have a good system of apprenticeship,” Berger said. “I was in quality management, and that was pretty awesome to see how important everything is.
“Maybe that is the direction I will want to go in Germany.”
Berger said that he actually worked about a month for his native employer BMW, in quality management, and feels like he can use some of the systems and information he learned here at Voestalpine when he returns back home to work in Germany.
“Sometimes the American solution (to problems) is lowtech and easier but in the end it functions much better, we think things through too much (in Germany),” Berger said. “At the end of the day you don’t have the stress and you don’t spend so much money and you get the same result.”
Gaertner worked in the electrical department at GNTC. He said he was amazed at the differences between the German and American codes. “You have completely different rules, completely different tables and books for your calculation,” Gaertner. “It was nice to see this and learn the difference between the calculations.” He was amazed at the difference between the electrical systems in some of the older buildings on the GNTC campus as opposed to the newer buildings.
Gaertner said the first two weeks of classroom training at GNTC was a challenge largely because his English was self-taught after he had been accepted into the exchange program. As the program evolved, Gaertner said he would continue to ask questions about things he was not able to completely understand in the early going
Both Berger and Gaertner said they enjoyed their free time experiences with their host families and both said they felt like the exchange program was hugely beneficial to them and their future career. He said he would tell a lot of his German friends that they should apply for the program.
GNTC President Pete McDonald said the college would seek to continue to participate in the program in years to come. He said he expects to see an increase in the number of colleges that participate as well.
“It’s been a good experience for us because we get to cross-fertilize, so to speak, with their ideas and training,” McDonald. “We learn from that and they learn from us. We will definitely participate next year.”
Berger said he’d like to figure out a way to participate again next year, too.