April 15, 2005

First prize from the Baden-Württemberg regional foundation for the youth enterprise company JTK

There was great joy and the cry of jubilation could not be missed. Education and culture minister Dr Annette Schavan and Professor Dr Claus Eiselstein from the regional foundation handed over a cheque for 7,500 euros at the trade and industry centre and expressed their enthusiasm for an idea from the students from Künzelsau. The title of the project which was submitted for the competition was: "Dual training in association with a youth enterprise company". Normally a school-leaver receives a training place at a company and attends vocational college for two days a week. With this project the youth enterprise company functions as a training operation and 'loans' the trainee to partner companies which take over training in certain areas. This enables two additional training places to be created. The participating companies are the sponsor companies of the JTK youth enterprise company (Bürkert, Hohenlohe District Council, Stahl, Ziehl-Abegg) and the firms of ebm-papst and Würth.

The reaction to the project has thus far been very positive and now this was followed by the prize from the regional foundation. From around 90 submissions the judges nominated 30 projects for the final round. Because of the large number of participants and the interesting projects which were worthy of being promoted, the first three places were split.

"Theoretical scientific studies have shown that the vocational colleges of Baden- Württemberg are the best in Germany," said the culture and education minister, Dr Annette Schavan at the prize-giving. The results of this competition were the practical proof of this statement and the regional foundation competition a trademark of students' ability and readiness to perform well.