Oliver Schwarzbach, a former trainee at the TU Ilmenau, has been honored with the "Bildungsfuchs" award. With 91 out of 100 points, the industrial mechanic for precision engineering is one of the best graduates of dual training in the region, who are honored annually by the IHK Südthüringen with the glass trophy. The 32-year-old received the award on November 20 at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Suhl.
In the completed training year 2022/2023, a total of 973 candidates in the chamber district of the IHK Südthüringen took the final examinations in 101 training occupations. The Bildungsfuchs is awarded to those candidates who have achieved the best overall result in their training occupation with at least 87 out of 100 points. This year, the average score of all graduates was 71 points. With 91 points, Oliver Schwarzbach is well above this average.
Oliver Schwarzbach started his traineeship in September 2020. The keen snowboarder came to industrial mechanics in a roundabout way:
I wanted to turn my technical interest into a career and was looking for a well-founded and very broad-based apprenticeship.
Intensive support in the training workshop
What won him over at TU Ilmenau was the intensive support and practical training in the workshops: The 32-year-old spent the first two years of his training at the TU Ilmenau in the training workshop on campus. Covering around 140 square meters, the workshop space houses manual workstations and machine tools of all kinds: from drilling, milling and turning machines to surface grinders and sawing machines.
Thus, Oliver was able to learn the basic skills required for a future career. He was supervised by the two trainers Sven Wolfram and Sebastian Bretschneider, who prepared him for possible future jobs, for example in prototype construction or in mechanical development departments.
"In the third year of my apprenticeship, I was already working in the department workshops," says Oliver Schwarzbach: "in the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and in the Schützenhaus workshop of the Department of Mechanical Engineering." This allowed him to get to know other machines and specific tasks that are supervised by skilled workers at the university, but also to produce his first workpieces or prototypes himself. "Due to his life experience before the apprenticeship, Oliver was very eager to learn and particularly committed, which was also reflected in his very good grades at vocational school," says trainer Sven Wolfram. "That's why he was able to complete his apprenticeship ahead of schedule in July 2023 after just three years instead of three and a half."
Finding the personal development path
In order to develop even further in his professional field, the Bildungsfuchs award winner is currently completing further full-time training to become a master craftsman in industrial mechanics at the IHK in Suhl. "It is a personal pleasure for me to see how young people find their personal development path through training at TU Ilmenau. I would like to congratulate Mr. Schwarzbach once again on his well-deserved award," says Anja Röper, Head of Personnel Management and Training.
A total of 19 young people are currently completing a traineeship at TU Ilmenau. The university is once again offering several traineeships to start in September 2024: for vocational training as an industrial mechanic in precision engineering, but also for future specialists in media and information services, IT specialists in system integration and office management assistants.
Applications can be submitted from now until January 31 via the website for vocational training at TU Ilmenau .
About the Bildungsfuchs award
Since 1991, graduates with the best examination results in their profession have been honored by the IHK Suhl, since 1998 with the "Bildungsfuchs", a blue glass trophy handmade in Lauscha, which is presented to the graduates at the end of their training. This year marks the fifth time in a row that a TU Ilmenau trainee has been honored with the Bildungsfuchs.
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Anja Röper
Head of Personnel Management and Training