A step forward from introductory training to apprenticeship
Dieburg, 20th October 2017. Six refugees from Afghanistan took up their apprenticeship as a warehouse logistics specialist at Fiege’s Dieburg branch at the start of September. Since February of this year, they had been pursuing their six-month introductory qualification on site which they successfully mastered and which prepared them in stages for their apprenticeship. Next to practical warehousing experience the young men aged between 20 and 26 were also able to complete their forklift driver’s license, which allowed them to be introduced to a growing number of increasingly demanding activities.
Thanks to a co-operation with Bildungswerk Dieburg, the trainees receive in addition to the routinely scheduled classes at the vocational college, special language training with the aim of strengthening their knowledge of German and acquiring specific technical vocabulary common to the logistics industry. “By now, the participants can largely manage their day-to-day work in German even if they do not yet know every single foreign word”, says Andrea Berres who handles the personnel management for the Dieburg region. Fiege even supports the refugees with personal matters, such as when it comes to dealing with the authorities, and is in close contact with the individual resident social workers.
Intra-company integration as a formula for success
At the beginning of the year, Andrea Berres, together with her colleagues Philipp Nolte, Sandra Trautmann, Reinhard Hammann, Hamza Mohamed and Natalie Ilhan showed support for the refugees project at Fiege in Dieburg, the goal of which is to facilitate the start of the refugees’ professional career. After seven months, the refugees were successfully integrated into the company. Fiege’s primary focus in Dieburg is tyre logistics. It is here that Fiege stores, picks, packs and dispatches tyres of all sizes for brands like Pirelli. With the motto “Diversity in Motion”, Fiege has been advocating the integration of refugees at numerous locations. So far, over 48 refugees have been placed Germany-wide.
