What is a typical day like?

The flexitime model means I can organise and divide up my working day for myself.
So I usually start at between 7.00 and 8.00 in the morning. I first take care of all my routine tasks, and when I have done those I concentrate on the work that comes up during the course of the day.
Between 1.00pm and 1.30pm, I take a lunch break in the cafeteria with the other apprentices. My working day ends between 3.30pm and 5.00pm.

What tasks do you carry out a lot? What tasks have you learned to do up until now?

As a commercial apprentice with TWE, you spend time in almost every department during your training, and learn about the processes and day-to-day tasks there. For example, in Purchasing you learn how to issue orders and enter delivery notes. In Sales, you learn how to accept and process customer orders and how to issue order confirmations. In Scheduling (production planning), you are shown how customer orders are allocated to the different nonwoven plants and how they are scheduled. In Financial Accounting, you learn how to enter incoming invoices, and are also shown some of the details of the wider payment methods. Apprentices in the HR office work mainly on personnel issues such as managing the time-recording system, or entering holiday requests etc. In Despatch, you prepare and send out shipping document and deliveries. You work a lot with the suppliers in that department. In Quality Assurance, you learn what quality means in terms of the different nonwovens.

What do you enjoy most about the work? What do you like best?

The thing I like best at TWE is that as a apprentice, you are heavily involved in day-to-day events. In addition to your day-to-day tasks, you are presented with a range of challenges, and are also confronted with demanding tasks. This also involves contact with customers and business partners from all over the world. What I also really like is the friendly attitude shown by colleagues and that there is always someone you can turn to if you have any questions and problems.

What things hadn't you expected beforehand? What surprised you about the apprenticeship?

Before my apprenticeship, I wouldn't have expected apprentices to be involved in so many official events, or to be given so much responsibility. For example this year, the apprentices are allowed to attend the trade fair in Frankfurt and help out on the stand there. In addition, aprentices at TWE work almost exclusively independently once they have been shown the basics in the different areas.

Which vocational college do you attend? What is a typical day like at your vocational college?

My vocational college is the business school in Emsdetten. The days when you have to attend the vocational college change with each year of appreticeship. So for example at the start of the apprenticeship, I was in school for eight hours a day for two days a week. But in the second year, it alternated between four and then eight hours. In the final academic year, you have just eight hours at college per week. Lessons start at 7.55am and finish at around 2.45pm when it's an eight-hour day. When there are just four hours in college, you come back to work. apprentices who have been to business school have a slight advantage in the exam, because they have already looked at some of the subjects and studied them in more depth during their vocational college education. But school-leavers from a standard secondary school or the equivalent, like me, soon catch up.

Which subjects are you studying at vocational college?

My main subjects at college are Accounting, Industrial Business Processes and Business and Social Processes. I am also studying some subsidiary subjects, such as Data Processing, English, Politics, German, Sport and Religion.

How are you supported at TWE during your apprenticeship?

TWE offers its apprentices lots of people to talk to. You can talk to your colleagues in each department (the department managers in particular), but you can also talk to the HT department and the Young Peoples' and Trainees' representatives, who are elected by ourselves. There are also regular meetings with all the company's apprentices, where problems and requests etc. can be discussed.

Do you have any plans once you complete your training?

If it's a possibility, I'd like to carry on working with TWE following my apprenticeship. Alternatively, I could also imagine studying in combination with working afterwards.
To what extent have you further developed on a personal level during your apprenticeship?
During my apprenticeship up to now, I have learned to become a lot more self-assured, to approach new, sometimes stressful situations, more confidently and generally to be more organised.

When you think back, what were your first days at TWE like?

I was very nervous and uptight during my first few days at TWE. The work, the colleagues, the whole situation was new territory for me. But with my colleagues' friendliness and patience, I soon felt at home. By switching between departments within the company, you gradually get to low everybody better and interact with everyone. That gives you the sense of working in and with a large group, and not just for a company.