The ULDALL iron foundry in Vejen, Denmark has great opportunities for young people choosing education and jobs, but awareness of the company among young people could be even better. That's why Sales Director Dion Brun has reached out to local youth educational counselors and schools to invite them inside and provide insight into the wonderful world of the foundry.
In order to guide young people through the many opportunities for jobs and education, especially in the local area, it's important to know what local companies can actually offer.
This was one of the thoughts of Dion Brun, Sales Director at the iron foundry ULDALL in Vejen, who is especially looking for apprentices for the foundry technician program. For the first time, he has therefore invited 35 youth educational counselors, job center employees, vocational teachers and counselors from preparatory basic education in Southern Denmark to the iron foundry to tell them more about both the foundry industry and the foundry technician training - an invitation that has been very well received:
- It was really nice to gain insight into a company and an industry that we otherwise don't know much about. When we have to advise and guide young people in their choice of education, it's crucial that we know about the opportunities available - and the best way to do that is to get out and see the place with our own eyes and meet some of the people who work in the field on a daily basis. That way, we are much better equipped to assess which young people and which companies could be a good match, explains Tanja Vestergaard Skøtt, youth educational counselor at Vejledning Vejen, which counsels young people from 7th grade up to the age of 30.
Together with other representatives from the local job center and counselors from preparatory basic education, she visited the iron foundry, where everything from liquid iron furnaces, advanced technical equipment and solid craftsmanship are part of daily life.
- If you think it would be cool to work with everything from 1,500-degree hot iron and 3D printing to designing 2,000 HP engines and six-meter-long combustion grates, then the foundry technician profession is for you. But if the guidance counselors who are supposed to guide young people in their choice of education and jobs don't know anything about our profession or how important castings are to the production of everything from cars, electricity and food in Europe, they can't bring us into play as an option for young people. That's why it was an obvious choice to invite them in, and it's certainly not the last time we do it, says Dion Brun, Sales Director at ULDALL.
At Tanja Vestergaard Skøtt, there is great support for ULDALL's perhaps slightly unconventional method of reaching out and inviting educational counselors inside:
- I didn't have much knowledge of ULDALL myself before the visit, but I now have a much clearer picture of who a foundry could be relevant to among the young people I am in contact with. It wouldn't necessarily make sense to invite a whole school class to visit, but for young people who, for example, value a job where you can use your hands and a smaller, safe workplace where you look after each other, a place like ULDALL would be ideal.
ULDALL has around 55 employees at the foundry in Vejen and is an approved apprenticeship for foundry technicians, blacksmiths and warehouse and logistics operators.
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