People with disabilities and apprentices getting to know one another

"We do a very professional job here"

kbr Neckarsulm. In October 2006, Neckarsulm-based KS Kolbenschmidt GmbH launched together with the Heilbronn Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled the first exchange project bringing together apprentices and people with disabilities with the focus on helping one another and developing social skills. Nine Kolbenschmidt apprentices volunteered to take part in this social project. At four locations belonging to the Heilbronn Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled they will play an active part for three weeks each in a support project while establishing contact with the disabled people employed there. In exchange, these disabled people are to undergo practical work experience in a training workshop at the Neckarsulm piston manufacturer's next year with the aim of gaining an insight into work at an industrial company operating in the free market. During this period, they will be supervised by the very apprentices who are taking part in this project. The initial contact was established by the Reverend Rainer Hinzen, Director of the Heilbronn Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled. The project was then implemented by Norbert Roth, Head of Industrial Training at Kolbenschmidt, and Alfred Grimm, Director of Employment and Integration for the Heilbronn Region (Heilbronn, Kirchhausen, Talheim and Bad Friedrichshall) at the Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled. They considered very thoroughly beforehand how the apprentices could be integrated into the workshop environment. As Alfred Grimm comments, "We were curious as to how our employees would work with the apprentices." Norbert Roth was also unsure initially about how the young apprentices would respond to their disabled peers.

Norbert Roth (l.) and Regional Director Alfred Grimm (r.) with an employee who is checking prefabricated heating valves. To the right, Harry Fries (l.), third-year mechanic apprentice, explains the basics of woodworking to a Sheltered Workshop employee. The first round of the exchange, held in mid-October of this year, has already demonstrated that the two men have developed a successful idea in the form of a support project. Reflecting on the preparations Norbert Roth noted: "We held an information event back in the spring together with the apprentices. Film footage and lectures provided more detailed information about the work of the Sheltered Workshop and the social background. The first exchange then took place this fall; our trainees helped out at the workshop based in Bad Friedrichshall." The 18-year-old Kamil Kaiser, a second-year toolmaking apprentice, was one of the three apprentices who took part in this pilot project: "When you get to know the people here, including, for example,

employees who once led a normal working life and then through an accident suddenly became disabled, you become aware that this could happen to any of us." Christian Bender, who is training to become a mechatronic engineer, adds: "You also become more considerate towards disabled people if you have the opportunity to get to know them personally. We will certainly now take a different attitude toward human frailties, which we encounter everywhere, including in our working lives." In future, certainly, these apprentices will no longer steer well clear of disabled people, as is common practice, when they encounter them in the street. The two young Kolbenschmidt trainees helped out with planning work at Bad Friedrichshall, for example, including with the preparation of a technical drawing for the manufacture of a small metal truck. They have also learnt to convey their specialized knowledge to the disabled employees personally and on a step-by-step basis. Moreover, Norbert Roth regards this as a benefit to the apprentices in their future careers: "They now know how to explain work that seems very straightforward to us to people with learning difficulties one step at a time and to put themselves in the other person's shoes." The first three participants were pleasantly surprised to discover that the products being processed by the Sheltered Workshop employees included high-quality industrial goods. As Regional Director Grimm explains, "Twenty years ago we were generally known only as a producer of simple wooden toys or woodwork. We now have ISO certification in accordance with industrial standard TS16949 and are increasingly developing through outsourcing arrangements into a system supplier of high-quality industrial components (e.g., took kits for Audi, radiator hose preassembly for the Behr company). Kolbenschmidt is one of our customers. Various components from the Kolbenschmidt product range are prefabricated by us."

Katharina Weigelt (second from left on left-hand photo), third-year apprentice training to be a mechanic, assists an employee of the Sheltered Workshop with metalworking. To the left, her trainee colleague Starlin Antonipillai supervises the finishing of gift ribbon. Photography: Petra Voigt Alexander Hefele, who helped out in the assembly shop at Bad Friedrichshall, was impressed with the high quality of the work being carried out: "The employees are so motivated and happy that their meaningful work is being recognized that they show what is for us unimaginable patience given all the requirements made of them." Teamwork was also stronger and a chief factor in their success, he stressed. All three apprentices had only positive things to report on the pilot project and found working with disabled people an enriching experience. They would be only too pleased to take part in such a project again. However, working constantly as supervisors, following the relevant additional training, would be

too intensive for them, they felt. As the trainee mechatronic engineer Alexander Hefele comments, looking back, "In the evening you have so much to reflect on and so many personal stories to ponder that it is difficult to switch off and return to everyday life." Norbert Roth and Alfred Grimm are agreed that only projects such as this will help stem the rising tide of a "dog-eat-dog society which ignores the fate of weaker people". Roth then adds: "We have achieved the goal that the apprentices will no longer hesitate to help people in need. When the disabled people come to us they will gain an insight into our working lives, which will help in turn to promote further integration into society as a whole."

An enriching experience for society

kbr Heilbronn/Neckarsulm. In collaboration with the Heilbronn Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled and the Lichtenstern Foundation in Lwenstein, Heilbronn City Council has drawn up common guiding principles: "People with disabilities enrich every society with their originality, diversity and distinctive personalities. Their ideas about life, demands and wishes are no different to those of people without disabilities and they are entitled to lead a life with as many advantages and opportunities as possible. We support them in establishing a quality of life which offers the prospect of independent living and active participation in society."