Table of contents
- Reportage – training as a two-wheel mechatronics technician Nothing for wimps
- All with great enthusiasm for the cause
- Female apprentices popular as workers
- Gewerbeschule Breisach takes on the theoretical part
- Tight program in the three and a half year apprenticeship period
- Work till you drop in the summer
- This is how you become a two-wheel mechatronics technician
- From screw bolts to superbike IDM
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12th pictures
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Jana during troubleshooting: Why is the electric starter of the BMW R 850 R inoperative, although it is OK?
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The training center offers everything for aspiring journeymen and masters.
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Fabian Kraft is considered to be a great screwdriver – now the 20-year-old is making his master.
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Jana, the 24-year-old Harley trainee from Stuttgart.
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Rolf Greiner is happy about the two-wheelers: “Very motivated students, it’s fun with them”.
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Study first, then try: In the electrical workshop, theory is put into practice.
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Trainees in the electrical workshop.
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Brooding, brooding and studying: Teacher Dreier decrypts the circuit diagrams of the exercise machines in the workshop with Jana (right) and Ramona.
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“Systematic troubleshooting” is on the curriculum again today.
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More than 1,300 vocational school students from southern Germany visit the Breisach training center.
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The sensor technology of the gasoline injection and the structure of the system are topics of the theory lessons in the electrical measurement laboratory.
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Boss and protege: Gerd Maier is proud of Jana and her Harley-Davidson-Iron 883 conversion.
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Reportage – training as a two-wheel mechatronics technician
Reportage – training as a two-wheel mechatronics technician
Nothing for wimps
Incalculable working hours, limited opportunities for advancement and not much money in their pockets – future two-wheel mechatronics engineers know what they are getting into. But that doesn’t slow their enthusiasm: With a lot of enthusiasm and commitment, they strive towards their professional goal, as the visit to a management workshop for prospective apprentices and masters shows.
Brigitte Haschek
04/14/2016
No, electrics and electronics are by no means among the favorite subjects of two-wheel mechatronics students specializing in motorcycle technology at the Breisach trade school. Harald Dreier, technical teacher with a master craftsman’s certificate, brings it with a wink to the simple formula “extremely unpopular” – the subject requires abstract and absolutely logical thinking. It is not as easy to grasp as mechanics to touch. Jana Burger feels the same way.
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The 24-year-old raved about the great attraction that pure function exerts on her. How fascinating it is for them to take apart an engine, check parts and put everything back together again. She loves the smells and sounds that motorcycles make. The enthusiastic biker calls lessons in electrics and electronics rather coolly “demanding”.
All with great enthusiasm for the cause
The Harley trainee from Stuttgart and her 24 classmates put their heads together over circuit diagrams in the training workshop. Jokes are cracked and there is a lot of laughter, but that cannot hide the fact that everyone is very enthusiastic and serious about the matter. Today “systematic troubleshooting” is on the curriculum again. “In day-to-day work, it is also about finding defects as quickly as possible and diagnosing the fault precisely,” says Harald Dreier.
Because modern readout technology or not – the test devices cannot always actually track down the error, says Dreier. Two machines have been appropriately prepared by him for practice purposes: The electric starter of the BMW R 850 R does not work, although it is actually okay, as the test shows. The dog must therefore be buried somewhere else. In addition, the indicators and the digital gear display of a BMW K 1200 RS are on strike. So get to work.
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Study first, then try: In the electrical workshop, theory is put into practice.
More than 1,300 vocational school students from southern Germany visit the Breisach training center. From the second year of the apprenticeship, two times six weeks in block tuition. In consideration of the season, this is done for the almost 230 trainees with the professional goal of two-wheel mechatronics, 86 of whom specialize in motorcycle technology, the rest on bicycles, in the winter months. The two-wheelers, as they are called in school jargon, are a happy bunch of highly motivated young people. And hardly anyone who does not proudly flaunt their brand logo on their clothing.
Young women like Jana Burger and her classmate Ramona Heinrichs from Ludwigshafen are in the minority, but not outsiders in their class R3ZM1 in the third year of their apprenticeship. “Nobody is disadvantaged or excluded here,” says Jana. Dealing with the boys is completely relaxed. “It’s like having a lot of brothers.” Around 1840 young people across Germany are currently training to become two-wheel mechatronics technicians – only seven percent of them are women.
Female apprentices popular as workers
The low rate certainly has something to do with the strict trade association requirements for companies that want to train women: Expensive renovations, for example in the sanitary area, are usually unavoidable.
Female apprentices are always popular as workers, as the former head master of the Baden-Wurttemberg two-wheel mechanics guild Karl-Heinz Ricker confirms: “As a rule, young women are very committed, motivated, disciplined and goal-oriented,” he says. In addition, the skilled trades appreciate their high flexibility in family-related part-time jobs after their training.
Nevertheless, it took Jana Burger more than two years to find an apprenticeship position. After graduating from high school, she was still a little uncertain about choosing a career, but initially worked on the assembly line for an auto parts manufacturer. Then the change as an intern to a large motorcycle dealer nearby. That motivates the Suzuki GSX-R600 driver even more to become a two-wheel mechatronics technician. “I was allowed to try things out there on my own,” she says.
How to fix technical or mechanical problems, she had long since learned from the friends of the clique who tinkered with their mopeds. In the meantime, she wrote applications to motorcycle companies all over Germany. “I would have moved to the far north to get a suitable apprenticeship,” says Jana.
Gewerbeschule Breisach takes on the theoretical part
She is not lacking in enthusiasm and talent – this was also quickly clear to her future boss Gerd Maier, Harley-Davidson dealer in the Stuttgart district of Korntal, when she worked in the workshop for a week on a trial basis. It was the first choice for the apprenticeship position advertised by him, says Maier.
In the meantime he is very proud of his protege, who proceeds “with heart and mind” (Maier) and, once he has explained it, almost flawlessly. As a dual partner of the training company, the Breisach trade school takes on the theoretical part for the whole of Baden-Wurttemberg.
Tight program in the three and a half year apprenticeship period
The prospective motorcycle mechatronics technicians have to master a tight program in their three-and-a-half-year apprenticeship. Because in their day-to-day work, they maintain machines, convert them or even manufacture them themselves. They look after, maintain and test all vehicle systems, components and assemblies – i.e. engine management and safety systems, among other things. Without in-depth knowledge of mechanics, hydraulics, pneumatics, electrics and electronics, there is no chance of doing a decent job. In Breisach, teaching and training take place on 25 machines and scooters as well as 50 engines in three vehicle laboratories for checking and in five workshops for screwdriving and on half a dozen test stands.
“At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I thought it was an advantage to only deal with one brand,” says Jana. “Now I’m happy to see the great variety at the school.” And she likes the way the curriculum is conveyed: the lessons are interesting, lively and vivid. “A lot is conveyed that really helps.” Rolf Greiner, Head of the Vehicle / Two-Wheeler Technology Department at the Breisach Trade School, sees the interplay of theory, practice and laboratory as the key to success in training. “The young people should try things out, be allowed to do something wrong from time to time and not be under time pressure,” is his idea of the vocational school. The concept works: after all, “his two-wheelers” produced eight national winners and five European champions in the annual performance competition for the budding journeymen (see “From screw bolts to the Superbike IDM team”). “It’s fun teaching two-wheel mechatronics,” he says. “These are particularly committed and interested young people.” That’s right – and with the best prerequisites for finding a job after completing their training: there is an acute shortage of well-trained specialists in the industry.
Work till you drop in the summer
In any case, Jana Burger is sure of a job with Harley-Davidson dealer Maier after her apprenticeship. And she brings with her the enthusiasm that is essential for ex-Obermeister Karl-Heinz Ricker in this profession. High season in the season, lull in winter. Half of the approximately 3,500 motorcycle dealerships therefore work with annual working time accounts.
According to Ricker, this means working until you drop in the summer and vacationing in the winter. Almost a third of the companies only award temporary contracts in order to survive the sour cucumber era. Only 20 percent of the businesses are running at full capacity thanks to winter storage with full service, conversions or major engine work and the like. And big leaps are not possible with a starting salary as a motorcycle mechatronics technician of 2000 to 2800 euros.
This is how you become a two-wheel mechatronics technician
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The training center offers everything for aspiring journeymen and masters.
There are around 1500 motorcycle companies in Germany that provide training. There are vocational schools for two-wheel mechatronics engineers in Berlin, Bielefeld, Breisach, Bonn, Dortmund, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Koblenz, Cologne, Leipzig, Munster, Seesen and Straubing, among others. The one-year basic training takes place at a vocational school. This can be done either continuously or in rotation alongside the practical work in the company. After that, the training path is divided into the subjects of motorcycle technology and bicycle technology for a further two and a half years.
From this point on, vocational school training takes place in block tuition for two times six weeks per year. In addition, the students attend so-called trade academies for two weeks a year. This inter-company training serves to intensify practice. In the fourth year of the apprenticeship comes the journeyman’s examination: one day each in theory and practice. The success rates are quite high. If the first attempt fails, the trainee can take a second exam after six months; In these cases, the apprenticeship period is extended by half a year. A state-certified two-wheel mechatronics technician can now enroll at the master’s school immediately afterwards. A further qualification as a two-wheel service technician, who is the interface between the workshop, service acceptance and sales, is also immediately possible. More information at: www.zweiradberufe.de
From screw bolts to superbike IDM
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Fabian Kraft is considered to be a great screwdriver – now the 20-year-old is making his master.
The respective regional associations of the two-wheel mechanic trade register the best two-wheel mechatronics technicians in the motorcycle and bicycle sector for the national competition. Fabian Kraft from Grunsfeld in Franconia and then a vocational school student in Breisach won the motorcycle title in November 2014. As a reward, industry sponsor BMW offered a race weekend at the Lausitzring in the Superbike IDM team. The budding two-wheel mechatronics technician even got to work at the 2015 season opener at the beginning of May.
And he even impressed team boss Werner Daemen with his talent. The Belgian seized the opportunity and asked Kraft if he would like to be part of the party more often. The 20-year-old was of course immediately on fire and was as happy as Bolle about it. But it should get even better: At the last race of the Superbike IDM in Hockenheim, Daemen offered him to officially strengthen the team for the next season. “I would never have dreamed of getting such a chance,” says Fabian Kraft. Thanks to a grant from the federal funding program, he has been attending the master school in Breisach since October. And he’s looking forward to the next Superbike IDM season.
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