The sense of expectation, excitement and anticipation among ebm‑papst’s students and trainees is enormous. At Hannover Messe 2023, which opens its doors from April 17 to 21, they will independently represent the family company and world market leader from southern Germany and present the latest fan and motor highlights to an international audience.

Under the claim “Future Heroes”, the 15-strong team of apprentices and students has already planned and organized the entire trade show appearance on their own.

“With this project, we want to send a clear signal about the crucial importance of dual vocational training in Germany and show what excellent development opportunities modern training offers today,” says Dr. Klaus Geißdörfer, Chief Executive Officer of ebm‑papst.

Many training positions remain unfilled at present, and getting young people excited about technology in particular has become a huge challenge for many companies. This also applies to technology leader ebm‑papst with training sites in Mulfingen, St. Georgen, Landshut and Lauf. According to a press release from the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) dated November 6, 2022, more than 11,000 training positions in mechanical engineering-related professions remained unfilled last September. At ebm‑papst, of more than 100 new training positions in 2022, just under 20 places were vacant, and the trend continues to intensify.

“It is particularly through training that our company gains the urgently needed skilled workers to remain successful in Germany,” explains Kim Ziegler, a prospective business engineer in her 2nd year of training and a member of the young organizational core team for the Hannover Messe project.

Kim Ziegler and her colleagues Melanie Bildhoff (online media student) and Maximilian Chrzan (industrial clerk apprentice) together with their team of apprentices and students are responsible for all the planning for the event, starting with the booth concept and selection of products, and covering everything from budget control, timing and press communication through to managing personal invitations for top politicians.

And to make sure they were optimally prepared for their trade show appearance, the three drew up a training plan containing product training, personal skills coaching, trade show training and team-building activities to ensure strong collaboation among the young group. For feedback, the team selected mentors in advance who could provide help and advice as needed.

Dr. Sonja Fleischer, Chief Human Resources Officer: “I am extremely proud of our junior staff. It’s fantastic to see how they are approaching this complex task with enthusiasm and successfully implementing it.Hannover Messe is a great platform for showing how we embrace the transfer of responsibility in our company along with a high degree of creative freedom and simply let our junior staff “get on with it. It would be great if we could increase interest in dual vocational training with this project.”

In addition to new junior staff, the fan specialist is hoping that international trade show visitors will take an interest in its latest efficient and intelligent fan innovations for today’s hot topics such as heat pumps, data centers, cleanrooms and vertical farming.

Meanwhile, ebm‑papst’s future heroes are planning, organizing and training so that they will be perfectly prepared on April 17, 2023, in Hall 7 at Booth C50 of the world’s largest exhibition grounds and can show visitors how the company is taking ventilation technology into a new era. At yesterday’s preview of the trade show Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Messe AG and Onuora Ogbukagu, Corporate Spokesperson of Deutsche Messe have shown great interest in the young ebm‑papst talent project.