young generation hub: Discover careers and train your skills

It takes a bit of finesse to get the weld seam just right. VR glasses show the progress, and onlookers eagerly follow the action on the screen. At the booth of track construction and railway infrastructure service provider Spitzke, young people learn about the apprenticeships the company offers. Tom and Marvin are in their third year of training to become construction equipment operators. They don't weld rails together like their colleagues, but if something breaks on one of their machines, they repair it themselves, using a welding machine if necessary. Good grades in math and physics are an advantage in their job. What they enjoy is working with the machines and being outdoors a lot.

Young people can discover more than 80 professions at the young generation hub in Hall 2.1 until Friday. Exhibitors include companies and guilds, as well as training institutions such as the Lehrbauhof. Each stand offers a hands-on activity. At the chimney sweep guild, students can train their sense of balance on a slackline and practice broom making. S-Bahn Berlin has brought along a driving simulator. The German Armed Forces are practicing resuscitation on a training dummy. Gardeners are paving a path.

Patience and skill

A special challenge awaits young people at the stand of construction company Porr: using an electric excavator, they have to sink a bolt into a pipe – not as easy as it sounds. Nevertheless, the queue is long. “We want to make the construction industry attractive to young people,” says Markus Schwarz, Regional Commercial Manager for Specialized Civil Engineering. Training as a specialized civil engineer, for example, offers many opportunities for development – right up to site manager. "At events like this, we also try to get girls excited about the industry. Many machines are now controlled via touchscreen. Physical strength is no longer a prerequisite for working in construction," says Schwarz.

Balász, Jake, and Paul from Pankow have lined up specifically for the even larger construction vehicle from Gottlieb Tesch Kanal- und Rohrleitungsbau. They have already competed with the construction mechanics in screwing in nuts and bolts. Balász would like to become a police officer, Jake perhaps a carpenter. Solina, Philine, and Karlotta also tried their hand at the nut and bolt game. However, they found little information about their dream jobs - doctor, psychologist, sports presenter - at the young generation hub, although various courses of study are also presented.

Every day at 1 p.m., there is a panel discussion at the young generation hub. Am Montag beispielsweise sprach sich Berlins Arbeits- und Sozialsenatorin und Schirmherrin Cansel Kisiltepe für die Einrichtung eines Azubi-Werks nach dem Vorbild des Studierenden-Werks aus, vor allem um günstigen Wohnraum zu schaffen. Denn der Wohnungsmarkt schreckt viele junge Menschen ab, eine Ausbildung in Berlin zu machen – zum Nachteil der ortsansässigen Wirtschaft.