What trainees want: Friedhelm Loh Group honoured as a top training company

22.04.2016. The Friedhelm Loh Group performed very well in a nationwide study commissioned by “Deutschland Test” and “Focus Money”. The study revealed that the family-run business in Central Hesse, which employs more than 11,500 people worldwide, is one of the best companies in Germany when it comes to training. The 2,000 businesses with most employees in 22 different sectors were examined.

In the Friedhelm Loh Group, taking on responsibilities at an early stage, spending time abroad and consistently obtaining further qualifications is possible not only for established employees, but for young talent as well. That is why the global player from Central Hessen has now been honoured for being one of “Germany’s best companies for training”. A study by the Deutschland Test organisation and Focus Money magazine shows that trainees in the Friedhelm Loh Group enjoy particularly favourable education and training conditions: “We are delighted to receive this award and are proud of the valuable cooperation within the training team,” says Marcus von Pock, Senior Vice President Human Resources: “This seal of quality confirms in black and white that our concepts have proved successful in providing ideal development for young talent. We will continue to work towards these goals.”

The group provides training for around 200 trainees at locations in Hessen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia. Trainees can choose between no less than 20 trades, ranging from mechatronics and technical product design to IT specialist. The subjects they have to deal with during their training range from enclosure construction or energy-efficient climate control to man-machine communication in Industry 4.0. “Our training not only needs to convey technical expertise, it must also instil entrepreneurial thinking,” says Marcus von Pock. That is why ‘junior companies’ form part of the trainee development program. “Big Little Rittal” and “Ri2Youth” are organisational units of the Group’s largest company, Rittal, in which trainees independently maintain customer contacts, complete orders and make decisions: “It’s a great experience to be able to assume responsibility so early on,” says 21-year-old Maximilian Sirvend. In “Big Little Rittal”, he was responsible with three other trainees for managing the company’s fleet of vehicles and for ordering office supplies and promotional materials. Here, working independently is a matter of course.

Trainees abroad: learning in an international environment

In the Loh Academy, the company’s own training facility, training is regularly provided in soft skills, for instance during the “off-the-job workshop” at the Gnadenthal Monastery, where trainees develop their own projects. And those who still want to learn following their training can link a dual combined studies degree with an international qualification, thanks to the cooperation between the Loh Academy and the Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences (THM) where engineering, industrial engineering and business management can be studied.

Trainees who perform very well can also learn in an international environment, added Marcus von Pock: “That’s the advantage of a large group of companies that is successful worldwide.” Trainees are already employed at the group’s international subsidiaries, where they are gaining valuable professional and personal experience.

Most recently, the Friedhelm Loh Group was named one of Germany’s top employers (for the eighth time in a row) because the development of junior staff and employees plays such an important role in the company: “As the region’s biggest employer and largest trainer, we have a responsibility for our environment”, Marcus von Pock continued: “And we take it very seriously.”