We wish him all the best for this new chapter in his life, and we also wish his successor Claudiu Aanitei every success in his new role.

On this occasion we congratulate our former apprentice Marcel Gayer once again on his outstanding results as a precision machining technician.

We wish Mr Gayer all the best for the future.

The network has set itself the goal of saving 12,853.1 MWh/a of final energy and 6,425.3 t CO₂e/a of greenhouse gas emissions between April 2023 and March 2026 through energy efficiency and climate protection measures.

The Federal Government acknowledges the company’s commitment within the network initiative and wishes it every success in its continued work.

The assessment covered direct emissions at the Bretten site (Scope 1) together with the direct and indirect emissions arising from the purchase and use of energy sources (Scope 2). The aim of this inventory was to create transparency about how our emissions are composed. The task now is to improve this balance through appropriate measures and innovations, and so make our contribution to counteracting climate change.

It was 2016 when Mamadou Barry left his West African homeland of Guinea behind and set off for Germany. He arrived as an unaccompanied minor refugee in a country that was foreign to him, whose language and culture he did not know. None of that stopped the now 21-year-old from making a steep climb upwards. Just six years later he has two successfully completed apprenticeships behind him and is now employed as a precision machining technician at Klumpp Präzisionswerk. “I am glad that I am allowed to stay here,” says Mamadou Barry. The company, based in Pößneck-Ost, has now been supporting the young man for several years.

First school-leaving qualification, then entry-level training and an apprenticeship.

After arriving in Germany, Mamadou Barry initially lived in Frankfurt for a time. From there his path led him to Ranis, where he was first accommodated in a children’s home before moving into his own flat in Pößneck at the age of 18. It was there that he also gained his lower secondary school-leaving certificate at the state vocational training centre. His time at Klumpp finally began with the entry-level qualification that followed – a work placement subject to social insurance contributions that prepares young people and young adults who have already decided on a particular occupation for an apprenticeship. Klumpp was happy to give Mamadou Barry a chance, and the young man knew how to make the most of it.

During the placement, which included a German course alongside the work in the company, he made a very good impression, and so the company wanted to continue working with him. Mamadou Barry was given an apprenticeship contract as a machine and plant operator. But that was still not enough for this determined young man: immediately afterwards he added a further qualification as a precision machining technician, which he recently completed successfully after eighteen months of training.

Grateful for all the support

Mamadou Barry has consistently impressed with good results and commitment. He says he owes his positive career path so far in part to the considerable support he received. “I was lucky to be able to start my apprenticeship here at Klumpp. My trainer Mr Schroth and the boss helped me a great deal. I am grateful to them, and just as grateful to my former teacher, who treated me like her own son and bought me school books. Without all of that I would not have managed it,” says Mamadou Barry.

There was great delight, then, when it was confirmed that Klumpp would take him on. On 10 February the 21-year-old signed his employment contract, as did Levi Hubich, who completed the apprenticeships as machine and plant operator and precision machining technician alongside Mamadou. “We are very proud to be able to keep them both on. They were the first to train as machining technicians with us and to complete it successfully straight away. We are glad we were able to keep good people, because we need them,” says trainer Matthias Schroth.

By Theresa Wahl

Theresa Wahl on a path pursued with determination

A school-leaving qualification, two successfully completed apprenticeships and now a permanent position at Klumpp Präzisionswerk in Pößneck-Ost: what Mamadou Barry, originally from Guinea in West Africa, has already achieved after barely six years in Germany is impressive.

In that time he has learned a foreign language, settled into his new home, acquired a broad body of knowledge and made himself a qualified skilled worker. It was a path that was certainly not always easy and that held plenty of smaller and larger obstacles. But Mamadou Barry followed it with determination.

Klumpp Präzisionswerk donated 5,000 euros to all eight of Pößneck’s day-care centres for the first time. The individual shares are calculated on the basis of the number of groups at each centre. The AWO nursery Wirbelwind, where the handover took place on Tuesday morning on behalf of all the centres, received 840 euros, for example. “We will use it to buy toys for the children,” said deputy manager Kerstin Petzold gratefully.

Whereas surpluses from Pößneck’s social affairs committee had previously been distributed among the day-care centres at the end of the year, the scarce funds would now be saved for the coming financial year, said mayor Michael Modde (independent).

It is the first day of training for Hugo Pitzing and Anthony Franke, and it is packed from the outset with new impressions and knowledge. A tour of the plant, various training sessions on subjects such as environmental protection and occupational safety, handling hazardous substances and energy and quality management, but also practical skills such as marking out, centre punching and filing are all on the programme. Over the coming years the two young men from Pößneck, aged 16 and 17, will train as a machine and plant operator and a mechatronics technician respectively at Klumpp Präzisionswerk in Pößneck-Ost. Matthias Schroth will train Hugo Pitzing, while Uwe Blumenstein is the contact for Anthony Franke. Both apprentices are looking forward to the new challenges – and above all to earning their own money at last.

For Anthony Franke, the apprenticeship he has now begun was the only logical step. “I do a lot of tinkering with electronics in my free time,” he says. A work placement also gave him a taste of mechatronics, after which he knew that he could see this direction for his career as well – effectively turning his hobby into his job. His apprenticeship will last three and a half years, and he will spend a large part of it not at Klumpp but at the vocational training centre in Saalfeld. Once his training is complete, he could also imagine going on to study. For Hugo Pitzing, too, the top priority is to complete his apprenticeship successfully. “After that I can take other paths. But for now I am taking it as it comes,” he says.

It was no coincidence that the applications from both Hugo Pitzing and Anthony Franke landed at Klumpp. Anthony knew the company from a careers fair and through personal contacts, while Hugo knew it from school. “The company introduced itself to us. I applied and it worked out with an apprenticeship straight away,” he reports.

Matthias Schroth knows only too well what an asset personal contact is when recruiting apprentices – he regularly visits schools in Pößneck, Oppurg and Neustadt or runs a stand at the careers fair. “Getting into conversation with people is something quite different from placing an advertisement somewhere. You can answer questions and be more specific,” he says. Even so, finding suitable applicants is not easy, which is why the company decided on only two new apprentices this year.

Incidentally, Hugo Pitzing and Anthony Franke also have the chance to learn something outside their chosen occupation – namely beekeeping. “We have had two beehives since May, and a third will follow shortly,” explains Matthias Schroth. There is enough space for them on the company premises, and it allows the company to make its own contribution to sustainability. Klumpp employee Klaus Nürk is a hobby beekeeper and is currently passing his knowledge on to two other colleagues. “We have already extracted honey twice, and it was distributed to the staff,” says Matthias Schroth. The new apprentices are invited to take part in the project too.

The redesign of the outdoor area at the Ranis children’s and young people’s home is currently taking shape: a play tower some three metres high was lifted into position by crane a few days ago. At the opening the children were beside themselves with excitement and climbed the wooden tower, which has been designated the centrepiece of the course. It is intended to serve as a place to retreat to within the activity trail.

The playground designers led by Dirk Böhme, owner of the Saalfeld company Bau Werk 13, are currently putting the finishing touches to the site: a rope net beneath the tower inviting children to relax and daydream, a wooden walkway and further climbing ropes are still to come. “The entrance area and the wobbly bridges are still missing from the play and activity trail,” says Böhme. However, funding for the remaining items has not yet been finally settled, as the home’s manager Tommy Kleiber explains. He was confident that this would be resolved during the course of the year.

The tower was financed with donations from the Pößneck company Klumpp. In 2016 the firm handed over 10,000 euros to the children’s home, run by Diakonie Orlatal, and a further 5,000 euros the following year. “We have had close ties with the home since 2013,” says plant manager Ulrich Dluzak, who attended the opening of the tower. For the home’s tenth anniversary, he says, around ten children were once invited to the Pößneck plant. “The home has been close to our hearts ever since.” Dluzak left open whether a further donation would come from the company, since its annual contributions are spread across various organisations.

The idea for the activity trail came about more than a year ago with close involvement from the residents of the Ranis home. The three residential groups built models with Lego, modelling clay and cardboard according to their own ideas. From the individual elements and suggestions, the commissioned playground builder Böhme in turn designed a model, presented it to the young people in summer 2018 and struck exactly the right note. Manager Tommy Kleiber is also very pleased with the way it has been realised: “Cooperation between the builders and the young people is not something you can take for granted.”

With 26 places, the home on the edge of Ranis is fully occupied. Children and young people aged four to 17 live together in three residential groups. The home maintains good relations with the secondary and primary schools in the immediate neighbourhood. The residents come from a radius of around 100 kilometres, according to Kleiber.