Twelve apprentices from Germany are attending a number of Georgia’s public technical colleges and training at some of the state’s international companies as part of an apprenticeship exchange program with the Technical College System of Georgia and the Joachim Herz Foundation.
 
West Georgia Technical College, Central Georgia Technical College, Georgia Piedmont Technical College, Atlanta Technical College and Southern Crescent Technical College are hosting the apprentices through the end of March. During this time, the visiting apprentices will also visit the German-American Chamber of Commerce.
 
After March 31, they will become interns for up to 10 weeks at Jim Ellis Audi of Atlanta; Epic Insurance Atlanta; Kuhne and Nagel, East Point; Kennesaw State University; Murrelektronik, Suwannee; Zwick Roell Kennesaw; Schafer Container Systems, Atlanta; and Voestalpine, White, Ga.
 
“Student apprenticeships are an increasingly popular and effective way to fill jobs for which there is a high demand in Georgia,” said Gretchen Corbin, Commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia. “As Georgia becomes home to more and more companies that operate internationally, it’s important that our present and future workforce have every opportunity to get a hands-on education.”
 
The program, funded by and administered through the Herz Foundation based in Hamburg, was founded in 2015, when TCSG colleges hosted twelve apprentices. Together with the Halle Foundation it also funded a Global Faculty Development Initiative in which an instructor for each of the state’s 22 technical colleges traveled to Germany to learn about the German dual apprenticeship system. This is a partnership between companies, Chambers of Commerce, and technical schools that provides business and industry with a highly skilled workforce.
 
The dual apprenticeship model common in Germany, in which the majority of students enter a career through a formal apprenticeship with a company that also sponsors that student’s education, has increasingly been adopted by countries around the world, including the U.S. In Georgia, it is one of many apprenticeship models in the state.