Personal reports

What speaks in favour of vocational training at Roto?

"At Roto, staff make a great effort to look after the apprentices and there is even a performance review.

You feel integrated in the departments straight away and you’re not seen as just the apprentice.

"Go for Europe", apprentice exchanges, etc. provide the opportunity to become familiar with other countries or sites.

Training programmes cover all the specialist fields at the company so that trainees leave with a good understanding of what the staff there actually do."

What were your first days and weeks like at Roto?

“Roto attaches great importance to new apprentices and dual students finding their way around the company quickly. On the very first day, we got to know all the apprentice colleagues of each apprentice years and were able to talk to our mentors. So we felt welcomed right from the start.

In the following weeks we learned the most important basics in various seminars, e.g. how to write business emails or how to use the Roto intranet. Group exercises and self-created presentations rounded the program off.

The introductory weeks were concluded with a day of experiential education followed by a barbecue with the technical and commercial training team.”

How can theory and practice be combined?

“Dual studies courses consist of theoretical and practical phases. In the theoretical phase, you attend university and have lectures. The practical phase allows you to use this theoretical knowledge in real-life situations at your company.

Roto is a fantastic company where you can really put the knowledge acquired at university into practice.
A well-organised vocational training plan deploys apprentices and students in various departments within the company. This plan is created on the basis of the field of study, and the students get to know the departments that are relevant to their studies, such as training workshop, product development, sales, logistics, HR, etc.

Every department has an individual responsible for supporting the students. We are given tasks which are challenging, and sometimes require great responsibility. The fact that we can directly apply our knowledge from university is really valuable. This makes studying really fun, too!"

Does the course involve spending time abroad?

"We were given many opportunities to gain experience abroad. This begins with time spent abroad at a (partner) university, as desired by Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart, continues with a three-month internship in one of our subsidiaries abroad and additionally involves a four to six-week trip to our sales subsidiary in Nivelles, Belgium."