Report by apprentices - Industrial clerk with international business management

What a great job title - this apprenticeship not only sounds interesting, it definitely has been. There is so much on offer during the 2.5 years. You attend the vocational school in Esslingen for block teaching. After each block, you have the opportunity to apply what you have learned in a practical situation.

Placements in different departments are based on the years of your apprenticeship. In the first year, you start in the goods inward, warehouse and workshop departments, where you get to know the individual products and items. This is extremely important because in subsequent departments such as purchasing you need to be familiar with the items that have to be ordered.

As you would expect, the apprenticeship focuses on work in purchasing, accounting, auditing, logistics, sales, marketing, controlling and human resources. This calls for constant flexibility as an apprenticeship is always having to get used to something new.

What is special and exciting about this apprenticeship is the fact that you can expect one or two international placements - in my case they were in Britain and Spain.

In London, I spent two weeks at a language school along with my classmates.  During my four-week stay in Barcelona, I worked for our subsidiary. The aim is to use your languages rather than just learning them. The other positive results are definitely more openness to new situations and more self-confidence.

Stefanie Sterr,
Apprentice business management with international management