Education Thought Through

Ulrich Temps runs one of the largest painting companies in Germany. He counteracts the effects of demographic change through targeted recruiting. His company successfully participates in various integration projects.

Author: Martin Mansel | Photos: temps

The temps group has significantly increased the number of its trainees since spring 2016. In total, the painting companies are currently training 69 young people from 15 nations, including 51 at the headquarters in Neustadt am Rübenberge near Hanover.

temps Malereibetriebe with its 445 employees consists of seven productive units with headquarters in Neustadt am Rübenberge and further locations in Magdeburg, Brandenburg and Hamburg. Basically, you work with employees from the region for the region. The Brandenburg location is an exception, since projects for high-quality hotel facilities are processed from there. In addition to a new paint shop in Neustadt, there has also been a modern training center with a training area of 700 square meters and seminar rooms for 90 participants since 2016.

Managing Director Ulrich Temps has declared the subject of training a top priority. As an experienced training company, you have been working with partner schools for a long time and have developed additional measures in addition to regular training. Towards the end of 2015, Temps considered how his company could get involved in integration. However, when he presented the involvement in the training projects SPRINT (SPRach and INTegration project for young refugees), SPRINT Dual and BAVKA (vocational training preparation and cooperative dual vocational training for disadvantaged young people) and the amount of the associated investments at a works meeting in 2016, this caused considerable unrest the workforce. Some of the staff encountered a lack of understanding. “I had to advertise the project more internally than externally. The entire first quarter of 2017 rumbled in operation,”reports Ulrich Temps.

A workforce is aging

He became aware that he had to revise his communication and make his employees aware of the problem of demographic change. In the discussions that followed, he explained that in ten years from the more than 400 employees in the group, around 60 will be retired and then only a third of the workforce will be younger than 45. He raised the question of who should then do the long-term practical work on the construction site. The employees had also realized that the need for young talent could not be met through the domestic market alone and that new ways had to be found when looking for employees. Normality came slowly, according to Temps, when the German colleagues took the SPRINT participants to the construction sites and convinced themselves of their motivation.

Projects in the training center

In January 2016, Temps became aware of the press that there was a model project SPRINT at the vocational school in Neustadt am Rübenberge, one of the largest vocational schools in Lower Saxony. This project for young refugees up to the age of 21 is intended to break down language barriers and enable a better transition to professional life. The project duration is one year. The young people spend one day in the training center and four days in the vocational school.

Mr. Marsch, then headmaster at the school and now regretfully retired from Temps, had discovered the topic of integration for himself. VW Commercial Vehicles Hanover started the project in January 2016 with the first participants. “From March we were there too. That was only possible because we had our training center ready at this point. Because they have to educate the young people, the participants have to get a basic understanding of how it works in the craft, how to deal with each other, get to know something about the culture and, of course, do it themselves,”says Temps. 17 young people were there in the first season, nine each in the two following years.

The follow-up program SPRINT Dual specifically qualifies the participants for the entry into the later apprenticeship. The prerequisite is proficiency in the German language at level A2 and a valid residence / work permit. The youngsters learn three days in the company and two days in the vocational school during the minimum of six to a maximum of twelve months. In Ulrich Temps' company, the commercial participants gather their experience at the beginning in the training center. Later they go to the construction site with experienced colleagues. The agency for work supports the campaign. The participants receive 231 euros per month. This amount is paid out by the Temps company.

Good success rate

Ten young people took part in the kick-off event in the first half of 2017. Four of them were subsequently taken on in training. Eight took part in the follow-up action in spring 2018 and everyone was able to switch to a regular apprenticeship. But, says Temps, the process is not a sure-fire success in the company. He emphasizes how important it is to involve the core workforce and also readjust it when working with the refugees. His conclusion: “It does not work by itself. So that the young people really have a real chance after the three years of training, we have to stay tuned. For example, we hired two retired high school teachers for tutoring, one for politics and one for math.”Temps is confident for the future:“So far we can only make this strong commitment in Neustadt, because we only have the manpower here. But we have the vision of getting young people excited about the other locations later. Overall, it is a long and challenging process and it is not without quarrels, but it is worth it.”

Further information:

www.temps.de