ENGEL Austria holds dual vocational training in China

TO ensure the rising demand for skilled workers is met, ENGEL Austria has invested in internal training where some 150 apprentices are currently training at the three Austrian sites of the producer of injection moulding machines. Now for the first time, apprentices are also being taken on at the large-scale machine facility in Shanghai – and ENGEL has exported the Austrian model of dual vocational training to China.

Ten young men have already made a start: over the next four years, ENGEL Machinery Shanghai will train them as CNC technicians.

In contrast to most other apprentices in China, ENGEL trainees gain a thorough practical grounding on the job from the first year onwards, and receive payment. ENGEL designed the new training workshop along the lines of its workshop at the company headquarters in Schwertberg, Austria, which has attracted national awards; the new facility is similarly equipped with state-of-the-art machinery. The trainers themselves were trained in Austria. Trainees are now undergoing 12 weeks of practical training and six weeks of classroom instruction alternately. At the end they receive a qualification equivalent to the Austrian standard that is recognised in both China and Europe.

In setting up a dual vocational training programme, ENGEL is emerging as a pioneer in China. The producer of injection moulding machines has put in place the infrastructure necessary for this together with partner firm ALPLA Werke A. Lehner GmbH & Co. KG of Hard in Austria. With the support of the Austrian Institute for Economic Promotion (WIFI International) and the foreign trade organisation of the Economic Chamber, the two companies viewed various training facilities around Shanghai before finding the ideal partner in the Shanghai Information Technology College (SITC). The SITC is already running a special class devoted to the theoretical training of prospective CNC technicians.