Doing something practical

Even while still being at school, Tom knew he wanted to pursue a manual, technical job later in life. A friend tipped him off that WTE took on trainees in a neighbouring town. When he read up on the cutting machine operator training on the website, he applied for the vacancy right away. "I then received an invitation to an interview very quickly. We agreed on a trial day. After that, I got the go-ahead straight away", says Tom, recalling his smooth application process. As well as the good apprenticeship wage and variety of opportunities to develop, he was particularly impressed by the company's own in-house training centre. This is a place where you can try things out and realise exciting little projects. So far, his own projects have included building a compressed air motor, which can be operated with a compressor and a steam engine, which can be powered by a "Räucherkerzchen" candle in authentic Erzgebirge style. He's been able to take the results home as tokens of his achievement. They still delight him every time he sets eyes on them. "We're certainly not just practising here. We're also making special equipment for machinery that's used in production – whether it's a clamping fixture or just a washer that needs to be ground. Optimising tools is another aspect, e.g. if a turning tool needs to be shortened. We deal with basically anything that can help production", says Tom. In the first year of his training, Tom worked exclusively in the training centre, where he learned the basics of metalworking and conventional turning, milling and grinding. Since he passed his interim examination, he's already been working permanently in production at Ehrenfriedersdorf.