Erfahrungsbericht - "Trainee-Programm bei TÜV NORD"

TÜV NORD will start its International Trainee Program in October this year. This is an entry program specifically designed for graduate engineers who already have some work experience.

Based on our internationalisation strategy, we would like to recruit a local entrant for the program (such as for instance from India for India). To get to know TÜV NORD Group, the trainees stay several months in Germany and after that pass through several stations in our subsidiaries abroad. Finally, having successfully completed the 1 year program, they will be employed in our international subsidiaries.

We are also looking for five Trainees for our German branches.

My name is Philipp Dreis and I am 28 years old. I studied mechanical engineering at FH Frankfurt/Main (Diplom); major subject automotive engineering, minor subject production engineering. During my studies I had the opportunity to spend my industrial placement in Botswana with IMC (International Mining Consultants) for an EU project (around 5 months overall/ 3 months in Botswana). This placement sparked my interest not only in process/plant engineering for plants which treat different kind of resources (copper, nickel, iron etc.) but also my interest in working on an international basis. I also had the chance to participate in further IMC projects after my industrial placement. In the course of these projects, I gained a close insight into the work of consultants in different fields (metallurgists, economists, geologists etc.). Working partly with non-engineers showed me that it is very important to get a broad overview and a general understanding of many different sectors (business and commercial, marketing, metallurgy etc.).

This broad understanding is an essential attribute for a consultant. Nowadays tasks are becoming more and more complex, and working in a company that operates throughout the world requires broad knowledge of different areas of expertise.

After I graduated I had the opportunity to join an EU project in South Africa (around 6 months). This project focused on treatment of off-gas from a copper and nickel smelter in Botswana. This smelter does not follow European standards regarding the environmental impact of its off-gas, and therefore the EU assigned the consultants to prepare a pre-feasibility study for technical, financial, marketing and environmental solutions in order to bring this smelter closer to EU standards. In this project, I acted as the assistant of the project management and the contact person in South Africa for the rest of the consultants who were partly located abroad.

In December 2011 I joined the trainee program of TÜV NORD. You will find details of this program and information on what I have done so far, and will do in future, in the following sections.

Trainee Program - a lot of companies are offering the opportunity to start a trainee program in their company, but what does a trainee program really involve? Is it an internship, a course of training or the first steps into the working environment?

In case of the TÜV NORD trainee program, it is a combination of all three. TÜV NORD offers a twelve-month program aiming to help the trainee establish a network covering the whole of the TÜV NORD Group and also gain an understanding of the capabilities within the Group. In addition, the trainee attends various seminars and training courses.

Compared with other trainee programs, TÜV NORD offers a very flexible program, which is tailored to every trainee individually. Generally speaking, the trainee applies to a specific Division, in which she/he will start working following completion of the program (in some cases it is possible to get an overview of the TÜV NORD Group first, before deciding which division will be the final Division after the program).

Each trainee has her/his own mentor, who holds a leading position in the final Division. Working with this mentor and the supervisor of the trainee program, the trainee has the opportunity to plan the twelve months period based on his or her own preferences (according to which Divisions are more important for the trainee, the time frame and so on).

Besides establishing a network and getting to know the capabilities of TÜV NORD, the trainee can gain insight into areas of work which are normally not closely related to her or his own specialist field.

As mentioned above, I started the trainee program at TÜV NORD in December 2011. My final Division will be IMC. As IMC is a part of DMT (Deutsche Montan Technologie), I spent the first few weeks in Essen (Germany) at the headquarters of DMT, in order to obtain an overview of the capabilities of DMT and the kinds of work undertaken in the different Divisions. After those first weeks I joined IMC in Nottingham (UK) for four months. The aim of this stay was on the one hand to get to know my mentor, David Smith (Mining Director), and on the other to see what kind of projects IMC is involved in.

During those four months I was involved in several different projects and so I obtained a good overview of the capabilities of IMC. Besides getting to know all the colleagues at IMC Nottingham and being involved in various minor tasks, I was mainly occupied with a basic engineering study for a mine rehabilitation in Greece, a report review of a leaching project in Kazakhstan and a Due Diligence for an iron project in Mauritania.

After IMC I had the chance to get to know a division of DMT called Coke Making Technology for six weeks. This division of DMT is concerned with engineering plants for treatment of coke oven gas worldwide. Besides establishing a network in this Division, I was tasked with preparing a document aimed at improving a part of the so-called Claus Process. Preparing this document gave me the chance to gain a good insight into this process. This was necessary because I will be involved in the start-up of such a plant in India in September. All my colleagues in this Division supported me with any questions I had, in order to ensure that I gained a good understanding of the process. I also had the chance to accompany a colleague in a coke plant for a whole day to actual see the process in action, to get a feeling of the dimensions of such a plant and of course, to identify hazardous areas in such facilities.

From time to time I worked in the Rope Testing facilities of DMT. This Division is responsible for all kinds of rope testing and for training people who have to work with equipment relying on ropes (e.g. hoisting equipment etc.) in the mining and resources sector. Besides testing ropes and electronic equipment, I had the chance to join a seminar for mechanists in which they learned how to operate hoisting towers. Mechanists in the mining sector are people who run hoisting towers, skipping devices etc. in order to transport the mined ore from a mine to the surface via special elevators.

After experiencing different divisions of DMT, I was now ready to get to know other divisions of the TÜV NORD Group.

TÜV NORD AG was the first division I saw besides DMT. This division is the controlling and leading part of the TÜV NORD Group. They advise every other division in legal and financial matters and are responsible for the strategy of the TÜV NORD Group as a whole. In this division I had a close insight into the legal department and had the chance to attend different meetings concerning risk assessments for future projects, for example. As an engineer it is important to be aware of the liabilities and responsibilities associated with a project and/or a contract.

After TÜV NORD AG I joined TÜV NORD Systems. This division deals with all kind of industrial equipment from power plants, through pipelines up to fairground rides. They are responsible for checking if the equipment in such facilities is running properly and complies with the legal operating standards. Working closely with big industrial clients is one of the key elements, besides management of a wide-ranging portfolio of different experts. During the three weeks I spent with this division, I accompanied different experts on their jobs. I therefore learned about how to maintain pipelines and how to check fairground rides and test equipment in power plants. To get such a broad insight into completely different industrial sectors is more than interesting and an opportunity not every company is able to provide.