People at EUROGATE

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  Helping young people to get started at work

  Kai Zobel, Training Manager for Technical Training, Bremerhaven

   

  Kai Zobel has headed up the training workshop of EUROGATE Technical Services in Bremerhaven since the end of 2008. To date, he has helped around 100 young people to get a foothold in their professions. This is a job that he has put his heart and soul into. And he has been successful – since the 44-year-old became Training Manager, not one of his protégés has failed their exams. On the contrary: several apprentices have achieved good and very good grades in their final exams.

   

It is often a long road to the successful completion of a vocational training course. And there are also stumbling blocks along the way. "The apprentices are young. So they are not always concerned just about the job but also about personal issues," says Zobel, adding: "Almost all of them have broken hearts at some time or other." As Training Manager, he is required to maintain a balancing act between being a person to be respected and a fatherly friend. He obviously manages to achieve this. The young people like and respect their boss.

The Bremerhaven native studied to be an electrician and worked with a plant construction firm for 19 years. He headed up the electronic technology department, where he was responsible for an extended machine pool and several employees. This experience is now useful in his current job. Zobel trains industrial mechanics, electronics engineers and mechatronics engineers. He not only works with the apprentices themselves but also deals with the individual technical departments, maintains direct contact with those responsible in the relevant disciplines and gets feedback on how his protégés are performing. He spends a lot of his time preparing exams. He also has a lot of dealings with interns.

Zobel demands a lot, he is strict but fair. He encourages teamwork and is pleased when his apprentices make progress. "It is really great to see how the young people develop," he says. He constantly promotes his area of expertise, electrotechnology, without neglecting other areas. As an IHK [Chamber of Commerce and Industry] examiner, he is a member of various committees. He is Chairman of the mechatronics examination committee and maintains contact with vocational schools and teachers. If he has any free time, he pursues his hobby, which has a built-in adrenaline rush: "I am a speed surfer," he says. He flies over the water at up to 70 km/h. But he also enjoys a slower pace: "I am also a very keen angler."