Lufthansa Technik is welcoming 240 young apprentices in August 2020, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company noted it was important to maintain its focus on training highly qualified employees, to secure the future. The apprentices are engaged across a range of nine training courses and six dual-study programmes.
“Even though we have no employment for many of our staff at the moment, we continue to train,” said Antonio Schulthess, chief executive of human resources, engines and aircraft systems at Lufthansa Technik. “Because one thing is clear: we will emerge from this crisis again and must then be prepared in the best possible way for the demographic change in our workforce.”
Of the 240 placements, 192 are directly attributable to Lufthansa Technik, with the rest attributable to companies in the Lufthansa Technik Group or joint ventures. More than 750 young people are currently undergoing training or studying in the Lufthansa Technik Group on their way to a career in aircraft engineering, industry or logistics.
The proportion of new female apprentices in 2020 is 14% – a slight increase on last year but a number that the company said was still too low. Lufthansa Technik will therefore continue its efforts to attract women in particular to technical professions. The inclusion of people with physical disabilities also remains a declared goal of the company: this year in Hamburg, Germany, two people with hearing impairments will start their training as tool mechanics.
Originally Lufthansa Technik had planned a higher number of new apprentices for this year. However, it said the outbreak of the pandemic and the resulting decline in global air traffic and workload in many parts of the company made it necessary to adjust the number of trainees accordingly.
