Experience report on the dual study programme

Field report by Christoph S.

My name is Christoph Schlüter, I started an apprenticeship as an industrial mechanic at ELHA-MASCHINENBAU Liemke KG after completing my A-levels. During this time I was able to gain and apply a lot of practical experience. I realised that practice often means something different to theory. In the training workshop, you were introduced to independent work at an early stage. There were projects that you carried out in a team with the task of planning with sketches, realisation and subsequent evaluation, of course with the support of the trainers.

After completing my apprenticeship, I was given the opportunity to complete a practice-integrated degree programme in mechanical engineering in cooperation with ELHA and the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences in Soest. This was the start of a varied time with semesters at the University of Applied Sciences in Soest and working hours at the company during the semester holidays. A semester at the FH in Soest lasts from October to January and from March to June. There are exam periods at the beginning and end of each semester break, which are learning-intensive due to their compression, but then you no longer have the stress of exams to work through.

During the practical phases in the company, I was able to familiarise myself with the various departments, which helped me a lot in my choice for a future job. During my training, I was already familiar with some areas of the company and was therefore able to get to know the networking and interfaces even better. What I liked best was working in work preparation (AV). Planning work and organising production, creating work plans, deciding on in-house or external production, creating calculations and selecting suppliers - these are all typical tasks in this department that I liked and which led to my specialisation in 'Mechanical Engineering Production Technology'.

The great advantage of completing a dual study programme at ELHA is the practical experience that you can gain during the lecture-free periods. It is one thing just to learn the theory at university or university of applied sciences, but it is quite another to put this knowledge into practice and apply it. Working in a team and the knowledge of practical technology required for this is extremely important in everyday working life. Overall, the apprenticeship gave me a very good basis for my studies and made my studies easier in many situations.