Twitter
Facebook
***image1***In Germany, the education system is a little different than in the United States. Here, students take an aptitude test when they are about 15 or 16 years old to help determine what career path best suits their potential and their interests.
If their chosen career is a trade or craft, they become an apprentice in that trade, and if a student is to become a mechanic, one of the places they can apprentice is located at the 21st Theater Sustainment Command’s Maintenance Activity Kaiserslautern.
Established in 1975, the Apprentice Shop, which is located in the Theater Logistics Support Center – Europe, is the largest apprenticeship program in the area. The program takes three-and-a-half years to complete and is divided into four phases. Students become proficient in mechatronics, which stands for mechanical and electronics engineering. It is a combination of mechanical, electronic and computer
engineering.
In order to get into the program, students must submit an application and then take a test.
“We have an application and from this we invite 100 students to take the test. Of the 100 who take the test, we accept eight,” said Thomas Mihanovic, chief of the TLSC-E’s Apprentice Shop.
Once in the program, the students learn everything from soldering and welding to airbrushing.
“I heard a lot of things about the Apprentice Shop, that it was good and that the apprentice program was the best in the area,” said Dennis Sebastian Muller, an apprentice at the Apprentice Shop who has been part of the program since August.
The Apprentice Shop also allows the students to learn in a unique way.
“When I was an apprentice here, my instructor would tell me exactly how to do things. He would say to put that screw there or move that there,” Mr. Mihanovic said. “Now we make projects. We tell the students the result we want and they are responsible to do it. The instructors are here for any questions and to help, but now the students function more on their own.”
The new method of instruction seems to be working very well. Recently, some of the students from the TLSC-E’s apprenticeship program were recognized for outstanding achievement. In September, Apprentice Shop students Katharina Roemer, Lea Detjen, Behrens Birgit and Sarah Gerhard were recognized in a ceremony at Frankfurt as the best female mechatronics apprentices. They placed among the top 10 nationwide.
“What they learn here they can use their whole life,” said Mr. Mihanovic, who was a student at the Apprentice Shop from 1986 to 1989.
Like Mr. Mihanovic, after the students have completed the apprenticeship program, many of them get hired by the U.S. Army and continue working at the TLSC-E’s Maintenance Activity Kaiserslautern repairing heavy equipment, trucks and armored vehicles for the military.
The Apprentice Shop is located at the TLSC-E in Bldg. 2363, across from the Tool Store.
