NÖLKEN starts the new training year with motivated young people

Windhagen, September 29, 2021 „Our apprentices of today are our skilled workers of tomorrow. That's why training has been a top priority for us for years. It's important to us to continuously train young people in various professional fields,“ begins Katharina Klein, the trainer for industrial clerks.

This year, four young people have started their apprenticeships in Windhagen: one industrial clerk and three trainees in the logistics sector. Nölken also offers apprenticeships in the chemical technician field. This is a good thing, as Nölken has been growing for years and wants to meet some of its future needs from its own ranks.

For 2022, the family business has already set ambitious goals. „We will train in two additional professions. For the first time, these will be an IT systems integration specialist and a media designer for digital and print. „As a manufacturer of hygiene products, Nölken is certainly not a typical training company for media designers. However, we are so well-positioned in our field that we can cover all training content effectively. I am sure that with an interesting and varied training program, we can inspire young people to engage with technical design and sustainable packaging,“ explains Dorothee Wiedemann, Marketing Team Lead and trainer for this area.

For sustainably established companies, employees and their training are very important, and thus the respective training content is supplemented with attractive in-house offers. „The more targeted our training of junior staff, the better they can contribute to the further development of the company,“ explains Markus Nölken, who is responsible for human resources in management. This refers, on the one hand, to content offerings, seminars, and workshops that impart or deepen knowledge required for professional life, as well as trade fair visits and company tours at business partners. On the other hand, for the owner-managed company, this also includes internal sports and leisure activities, as well as the early assumption of responsibility in independent projects.

The mix makes it. „We make our apprentices feel valued from the very beginning, involve them, and try to retain them long-term in this way,“ emphasizes Katharina Klein, who herself started her professional career with an apprenticeship at Nölken. Nölken considers it important to offer young people long-term prospects. „We typically extend an offer of employment to committed apprentices who have demonstrated good performance,“ emphasizes Markus Nölken.

Employees are happy to take advantage of this, as can be seen, for example, with the Head of Product Management, Daniel Kesseler. After completing his apprenticeship successfully, Daniel Kesseler initially started in purchasing in 2008. While working, he furthered his education, first becoming a certified business administrator and later a product manager. For the past three years, he has headed the Product Management and Product Development departments.

„It is important to us that our employees feel comfortable from the very beginning and can develop according to their own ideas,“ Markus Nölken explains in conclusion.