From personnel number to distinctive personality: Seventeen new trainees join the Friedhelm Loh Group

20.09.2016. University studies, work experience abroad, leadership tasks – successful trainees of the Friedhelm Loh Group have the world at their fingertips. The 43 new trainees who make up this year’s intake can look forward to an exciting time of learning and work with a top employer. Vocational training is one of the most formative phases for the individual’s personality development, was the message passed on to them by company owner Dr. Friedhelm Loh. A fruitful traineeship is decisive in shaping our career future.

Stepping stone to the future: For the 43 new trainees at the Friedhelm Loh Group, the coming years will be a time of learning, working and growing – not only careerwise, but also in terms of their overall personality: “Training also means maturing as a strong personality, shaping the future both for yourselves and for others, and learning to assume responsibility. The Friedhelm Loh Group offers you the best possible opportunities to develop along this road,” said company owner and chairman Dr. Friedhelm Loh at the official welcome for the new members of the F.L.G. Family. Especially in our digital age, it is imperative to remain aware of the bigger picture: “The Industrial Internet (Industry 4.0) will change the world and pose all manner of challenges in the future. It is thus more important than ever before to carve out your own paths and to develop the courage to stand out as a person. Do more than just the minimum others demand of you, show commitment and never simply rest on your laurels. In this way, life remains exciting and satisfying.”

Page 3 The new trainees can look forward to a highly dynamic environment and the backing of the largest employer in the region. Dr. Loh went on to discuss the range of training measures the company uses to invest in traning, particularly at its own training facility, the Loh Academy. The company is currently training some 200 young people in 20 different career fields, from industrial electronics, via warehouse logistics to IT systems management. And when they finally receive their certificates, they will join the approximately 1,500 upand- coming specialists who have already completed traineeships here over the years.

Knowledge – Skill – Deeds: The triad for success

As a family-run company, the Friedhelm Loh Group attaches particular importance to a spirit of togetherness, and the trainees were able to experience what this means on their very first day. They explored the Rittal factory together, got to know each other better during a “speed dating” session, and reflected on these impressions in the informal atmosphere of an evening barbeque.

Among their number, there were also three refugees from Eritrea and Somalia, who had previously completed a three-month practical at Rittal within the framework of an integration project of the Friedhelm Loh Group and had thereby qualified for vocational training as machine and plant operators. Two of them are now official company trainees, and the third will be joining the training proper after a preparatory year to further develop his German language skills. Together, the trio is following in the footsteps of Khaibar Fatehzada and Eyobel Gebreyesus, who were already able to take up training at Rittal last year thanks to the pilot project which was initiated by the Friedhelm Loh Group to offer refugees Page 4 access to vocational qualifications – and thus the opportunity for a safe and peaceful future.

“The time of learning never ends,” as Dr. Friedhelm Loh emphasised. “There are always opportunities to do things better. Careers change, lives change, and you will also experience change at different points in your future.” The triad of “knowledge, skills and deeds” particularly stuck to the minds of the new trainees: “You must know what you are capable of, but you must then also do it,” said Dr. Friedhelm Loh: “If you follow that maxim, then nothing will stand in your way, whether as a trainee, as an employee or even as a future manager. You can be more than just a personnel number. Become a distinctive personality.”