Dortmund – Training and committing specialist personnel is a key challenge for many companies. One way of mastering this is to provide employees with continuous further training. The KHS Group has found a successful method in this respect in the introduction of two special trainee programs. Fifteen people employed by the provider of filling and packaging systems have now been the first to receive their final certificates for KHS' very own Fit4Commissioning and Fit4Service programs. At the same time they also passed their exams to become qualified CIC service engineers. 

"We want to give our next generation of specialists an extra perspective within the company and in their own careers," says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Niemeyer, chairman of the KHS GmbH Executive Management Board. "We're very pleased with the fact that no less than 15 young people have qualified in the first year of the new programs and will now be offering their immediate support to our Commissioning and Service departments." All of the participants had already trained as mechatronics engineers or industrial mechanics at KHS prior to starting the new courses, where they were able to intensify their knowledge in KHS' Fit4Commissioning and Fit4Service programs.

The one-year course of further training includes theoretical and practical elements which are fixed at all production sites according to uniform criteria in a ten-stage qualification course plan. Each participant specializes in one type of machine during his or her period of training. Besides specific basic modules and periods of work alongside experienced engineers either at the KHS plant or on customer sites the program embraces various other aspects. These include further training in specialist areas and interdisciplinary seminars, such as classes in English and intercultural skills.  Both programs culminate in a certification examination.

CIC service engineer certification included

The extensive training program also incorporates courses run by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce or CIC which qualify the participants as CIC service engineers. This means that the trainees obtain not one but two certificates on conclusion of their one-year course: as a KHS commissioning or service engineer and as a CIC service engineer. 

At the award ceremony in Bad Kreuznach KHS presented the following young people with their certificates: Steffen Krämer, Jan Krensel, Nico Ortmann, Jan-Michael Stöve, Andreas Erking, Philipp Folgner, Claudius Köhler, Christopher Dengel, Dominik Leuken, Henrik ten Haaf and Tobias Walter (all Fit4Commissioning) and Fabian Peters, Dominik Scheuner, Florian Eckes and Dominik Schröder (all Fit4Service).