Carolin Unbehaun, a former trainee at the TU Ilmenau, has been honored with the "Bildungsfuchs" award. With an outstanding 93.5 out of 100 points, the office management assistant and mother of three is thus one of the best graduates of dual training in the region, who are honored annually by the IHK Südthüringen with the glass trophy.
In the completed training year 2021/2022, 1,006 examinees in the chamber district of the IHK Südthüringen took the final exams in 81 training professions. After a two-year Corona break, the best were able to receive the coveted glass trophies at the beginning of November during the festive event at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Suhl. The "Bildungsfuchs" is awarded to those trainees who have achieved the best overall result in their training occupation with at least 87 out of 100 points. The average score for all graduates this year was 72 points.
With 93.5 points, Carolin Unbehaun is not only far above this average. As a mother of three children, she has mastered some special challenges during her training as an office management assistant, one of four training professions at the TU Ilmenau. During her apprenticeship, the 33-year-old not only worked in various areas of the university - from secretarial and commercial offices to the examination office, the dean's office and the department for human resources and legal affairs - but also had to familiarize herself with new topics. The academic part of the training at the vocational school and the preparations for the exams also took up a lot of time, which the young woman had to reconcile with her role as a mother. Her third pregnancy coincided with the exam period:
I somehow managed that, too
Carolin Unbehaun recalls.
And the professors I was assigned to were all totally understanding. Even if I had a doctor's appointment with my other children, I was able to postpone my working hours without any problems or even start at 6 a.m. to be home earlier.
Flexible working hours at the TU Ilmenau
During her training, Carolin Unbehaun also spent two years as chairwoman of the TU Ilmenau's Youth and Trainee Council, which represents the interests of all trainees and employees within the staff council who have not yet reached the age of 18:
It was very exciting for me to help fix problems or organize online events. In the process, I also learned a lot about the work of the staff council and was able to better understand the university structures.
The training at TU Ilmenau is already Carolin Unbehaun's second training. Before she came to the university in 2019, she had trained as a hairdresser:
Even then, I actually wanted to do an apprenticeship in the commercial field, but didn't get a place. I was all the happier when my husband, who works as a computer scientist at the university's computer center, made me aware of the vocational training at the university. 'It's now or never', I thought to myself - 'I'll make a fresh start now!'
At the time, the young mother was particularly convinced by the flexible working hours and the proximity of the workplace and vocational school in Ilmenau to her home in Gehren:
And the TU Ilmenau is simply known regionally as a very good employer.
The fact that the new start was successful is not only proven by the award of the Bildungsfuchs. Thanks to her very good performance, the vocational school and university also recommended that she shorten her training to two and a half years instead of three:
We are very proud of this great achievement and of all those who accompanied Carolin Unbehaun during her training and thus showed that family friendliness and the compatibility of career and family are not only propagated but also lived at the TU Ilmenau.
Anja Röper, Head of Human Resources Management and Training at the TU Ilmenau, is delighted about the award.
The young mother is currently on parental leave with her four-month-old daughter. Afterwards, she will return to her permanent position at the departments of Precision Engineering and Quality Assurance & Machine Vision, which was offered to her even before the end of her training: "Right now I'm enjoying the time with my child, but I'm already looking forward to seeing my colleagues again!"
Those interested in an apprenticeship at TU Ilmenau in the fields of office management, computer science and industrial mechanics can still apply until January 31 for the start of training in fall 2023.
Further information at: https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/universitaet/karriere/berufsausbildung/
Contact
Anja Röper
Head of Human Resources Management & Training