"Unpopular" apprenticeships: Image offensives by industry associations pay off

After the summer vacations, thousands of school leavers will once again start their basic vocational training. Not all training companies have yet been able to successfully fill their apprenticeship positions. Apprenticeships are having a particularly hard time in sectors where there is still a lot of demand for skilled trades. In the current print edition of ORGANISATOR, we report on "popular" and "less popular" apprenticeships and on measures that industry associations use to promote careers in the skilled trades and crafts.

Campaign for apprenticeships in the dairy industry

The Swiss dairy industry is also struggling to recruit young professionals. Over the past two years, it has therefore significantly stepped up its efforts to recruit young people for the professions of dairy technologist and dairy trainee. Not only is the entire image with logo, website, social media and career fairs new. Increasingly, the products are also being used as advertising media for the profession. After Schwyzer Milchhuus and Migros had already equipped 100,000 milk bottles with junior advertising in November 2016, Switzerland's largest milk processor Emmi equipped its milk packaging with advertising space for the profession of milk technologist in the fall of 2017. 1.8 million packages thus went on sale, motivating people to "Mix nature with technology and a little magic." The advertising referred to an online competition: anyone who answered a few questions here could, with a bit of luck, win a Swiss cheese knife from Victorinox.

Picking up" young people in their everyday lives

The idea behind the campaign is that "the most important career decisions are made by young people in their personal environment, as a career choice study of 1,000 people has shown," explains Hans Aschwanden, president of the Swiss Dairy Association, which manages the promotion of young talent in the dairy industry for 500 cheese dairies and 20 industrial companies. "When parents and young people learn about the profession of dairy technologist through the products, they make the connection to the pleasure they often experience every day - whether they consume milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, milkshake or caffè latte."

The campaign seemed to have an effect: According to the association, eight percent more new apprentices were registered after a short time. But President Hans Aschwanden is aware that it will take a long time to have a lasting effect. "We have set the ambitious target of 500 apprentices. However, we are aware that demographic developments run counter to this. More and more industries are having to accept a loss of 20% to 40% fewer learners, even though more and more money is being invested in recruiting young talent. We are therefore all the more pleased that in the dairy industry the combined efforts of the cheese dairies and the industry are beginning to bear fruit and we are seeing an upward trend."

Digitization also affects dairy apprenticeships

And you can certainly go far as a trained dairy technologist. Isidor Lauber, for example. The site manager at Emmi Ostermundigen started at Emmi 30 years ago as a dairy foreman and has managed the Ostermundigen site with 600 employees and 35 apprentices since 2003. And just recently, 24 young talents from the cantons of St. Gallen, Zurich, Thurgau, Schaffhausen, Appenzell-Ausserrhoden and Graubünden proved at the third Eastern Switzerland Professional Championship for Dairy Technologists at the BZWU in Flawil that they can produce enjoyment from milk. For the first time, two female apprentices made it to the winning positions. They show that in cheese dairies and dairy industry companies, women perform just as well as their male colleagues. Thanks to increasing digitalization, physical strength is becoming less important than motivation, precise work and knowledge of microbiology and chemistry.

More information: www.milchtechnologe.ch