How ebm-papst organizes training during times of Corona

The training at ebm-papst continues even during the times of COVID-19. (Photo source free of charge: Philipp Reinhard)

The training at ebm-papst continues even during the times of COVID-19. (Photo source free of charge: Philipp Reinhard)

The global COVID-19 pandemic demands high flexibility from the fan specialist ebm-papst. On the one hand, the health of employees and their families is at the core of the company's focus and must be protected; on the other hand, supply chains must be secured daily, and customer orders fulfilled with the usual level of service. While administrative departments, among others, are working only limited hours due to short-time work, training at ebm-papst continues in full scope.

Within a few days, the entire training department was reorganized. Bernd Ludwig, Head of Training and Development at ebm-papst in Mulfingen, explains: "The trainers divided themselves into A and B teams to ensure continuous support for the trainees, even if we should encounter a case of infection. Then we jointly defined how to protect our trainees and enable them to work from home temporarily." In addition to implementing a digital learning platform, we also divided our trainees into A and B teams. This means that the commercial trainees spend one week in their department, and the next week at home. The technical trainees alternate between one week in the training workshop and one week at home. During the times they are not at their workplace, both groups receive work packages. The technical trainees take home practical tasks as well as theoretical exercises.

This concept is also made possible by vocational schools, which, although they had to suspend traditional classroom teaching, continue to ensure that training content is conveyed theoretically. "The vocational schools really adapted quickly to the new situation," says Bernd Ludwig. "The teachers developed digital learning materials for students at record speed and are available during regular class times to support our apprentices through the material." In this way, a regular training completion is to be possible even during Corona times.

Lukas Schüttler still has two years before completing his training as an industrial clerk. Currently, he is undergoing a rotation in corporate communications. He also works from home every other week and participates in the daily video conferences of his department. "Of course, home office is a challenge as an apprentice," he says, "You have to organize yourself independently, but it’s also nice that we are thought of, and that we have the opportunity to deepen our knowledge in this way. The school provides us with materials via a cloud, and ebm-papst also offers us a learning portal with tasks related to our subjects. So, we are very well supported overall, and my training does not suffer from the current situation." Overall, ebm-papst has around 400 apprentices nationwide in Germany, about 250 of whom are based at the headquarters in Mulfingen.

At other German ebm-papst locations, solutions have also been found to continue training despite the coronavirus. In Landshut, for example, apprentices work from home on tasks assigned via a digital platform during the missed school weeks. Supervisors are also available virtually. For the weeks when apprentices are at home due to the A and B group model introduced in Landshut, they receive tasks from their company supervisors. Gerald Rudolf, Training Manager at ebm-papst Landshut, sees some positives in the situation regarding exam preparation: "We can see from the completed tasks where the apprentices still have deficits and can work on them specifically with the apprentices. We have more time to individually engage with individual apprentices than in the 'normal' situation when exam preparation takes place in larger groups."