A fitness studio for electricians - that's how Paul Hauer describes the Enpal Academy in Dahlewitz, Brandenburg. However, aspiring electricians will not find dumbbells and treadmills in two large training halls. Meter cabinets, heat pumps, cable ducts and even a replica roof await you. “People learn every trade in renewable energy, but first the basics of the craft,” says academy director Hauer in the podcast “The Climate Laboratory of ntv”. According to him, even trained electricians don't always know what "the right anchor for the right surface" is. The goal is obvious: Enpal wants to be able to install as many solar systems and battery storage systems as quickly as possible - not just with young people and career changers from Germany. The company specifically brings trained electricians from Colombia into the country. By a historical coincidence, the curricula there are understandable for German authorities and the IHK.
ntv.de: Are you currently the most sought-after trainer in Germany?
Paul Hauer: Phew. Good question. We are definitely one of the largest training centers in Europe for renewable energies and decentralized energy solutions - I deliberately say that instead of "training center". The concept is practical exercises and circuit training.
Like in the gym?
Something like that. A fitness studio for electricians and other trades. We train practically, approach the material, make things understandable in the truest sense of the word by touching and implementing them.
Why does Enpal tie this burden to his leg? Having your own training center costs time and money and has nothing to do with your core business: selling solar systems, heat pumps and battery storage.
Yes, qualification is time-consuming, but for us it is part of the solution. Today alone the trainers are looking after 124 participants, just here in Dahlewitz. Around 100 people in the company work on these topics. We do this because the market does not yet provide sufficient solutions - both in terms of hardware and skilled workers.
External craft businesses don't install the devices the way Enpal imagines, or don't have the capacity to do so?
We initially worked with trade partners, but realized that this was not enough to meet the requirements and high demand. That's why we started to rethink installation and qualification. We have developed our own hardware that is easier to install. Adapted to this, we have defined new roles and set up training courses for them.
The core problem, however, is that there are more orders than installers. Keyword: shortage of skilled workers.
This is still an issue, but we have become extremely good at closing these gaps.
Actually?
This academy has existed in a rudimentary form since 2021. There was already a replica roof truss in the first branch for the first construction site control to rehearse the installation. At that time, there were no established standards for many applications of the energy transition. We had to develop many processes ourselves. A little later, the academy moved into its own hall next to the branch as an intermediate level. Then the energy crisis was triggered by the war in Ukraine. The demand for solar and energy independence has been extreme. That's why we opened this large hall in November 2022 and mainly trained assistants for the PV area.
What exactly do people learn here?
Every renewable energy trade: We first teach the basics of the craft and then train in real installation situations. Among other things, there is a dowel wall. Even electricians with three and a half years of training don't always know what the right anchor is for the right surface because they haven't done it often. But customers naturally expect all devices to be mounted securely and in an aesthetically pleasing manner. That's why we built entire walls where we practice laying and nesting cable routes.
But also installing a wallbox or a heat pump?
Yes. There is also a large area for electrical installation. There, electricians can practice how to wire in the meter cabinet. This may sound banal to outsiders, but the meter cabinet is the creative work for craftsmen. This is where the artists come into play.
Artist?
In our installation corners for storage, inverters and wallboxes, you quickly notice that the technology has been incredibly advanced. Many installation steps are now standardized. Qualified assistants can do this. This is different with the meter cabinet. You open it for the first time and have to understand it. This is work for skilled workers. We train this understanding here.
You never know what to expect when you get to the customer's location?
The German building structure is different everywhere. In Brandenburg, generations of crafts have been immortalized in the houses of the Wilhelminian era. Each one is full of surprises. This also makes occupational safety a major challenge. Among other things, we built a spiral staircase. There our participants learn how to use an electric hand truck. Battery storage and heat pumps are heavy devices. And it is very important to us that the installers learn how to move correctly and safely on the construction site.
It doesn't take long until you come across reports or photos on the Internet of Enpal installers installing solar systems on roofs without safety ropes.
Because of our size, we are represented on many construction sites and are regularly visited by the professional association. We also inspect our construction sites ourselves. Our network of mobile trainers checked 1,000 construction sites last year alone. We also whistle our teams back if they do not adhere to our occupational safety regulations - be it when working with electricity or on the roof. Various dangerous situations can arise there, including weather-related reasons. It can be too hot in summer and too wet in autumn. In winter it can snow, so we occasionally have to demolish or redesign construction sites. Roofs are difficult. That's why we built an outdoor roof at the academy on which our people can train. Together with Würth and the professional association, we recently developed our own occupational safety system: Rast.
Do the installers also use this?
Yes. In addition to our checks, they have to prove via app at every construction site that occupational safety has been established, i.e. they have to upload pictures of the secured roof and a kind of selfie of themselves in which they are secured.
And after the photo, the leash is removed again to save time at work...
There is no total surveillance. It would also be strange if there was a surveillance drone constantly circling above the roof. Ultimately, the technicians on site have to decide for themselves whether they follow the safety regulations.
There are many information signs in the training center. They explain, for example, how to behave around customers or simply that you should clean up your trash at the end of the working day. A surprising number are in Spanish.
There are 124 people present in the academy today. Of these, 99 come from Colombia. You completed training as an electrician there and would like to gain a foothold in Germany. We help them with controlled migration and integration into the labor market and at the same time train skilled workers.
Why Colombia and not Argentina or Mexico?
There are two reasons for this: Firstly, the Colombian and German governments have concluded an accelerated skilled workers agreement. This makes entry easier. The second reason is a happy coincidence of history: there was also a shortage of skilled workers in Colombia in the 1950s. A certain Rodolfo Martínez Tono traveled to Europe and got to know the dual training system in Germany. Back in his homeland, he founded an academy like this one, the Sena Institute. This standardized all Colombian vocational training. There is a fixed curriculum for training to become an electrician. Our authorities and the IHK can understand and understand this curriculum.
Foreign vocational training is not recognized without a curriculum?
Unfortunately, without a certificate and without a comprehensible curriculum with a stamp, this won't work. Not without a language course either. Everyone here has already completed one in Colombia. This is a requirement to be allowed to come here. We work with the Goethe Institute. There is also a kind of casting to check whether people are actually suitable. In total, we have now brought more than 600 people to Germany. 250 of them are in training. The others are already integrated into the labor market at various levels - not just at Enpal. They can also go to another company. We are proud to have made so many people available to the German labor market.
How long does the training last?
When a Colombian electrician comes to Germany, he receives a deficit notice from the IHK. It says what is missing in order to be recognized here. The training can last three months, six months or even a year. When the people in our academy are finished, we accompany them to construction sites. They then complete an internship in a company and gain experience for as long as the IHK specifies. At the end, they submit everything to the IHK and receive the journeyman's certificate or a certificate of equivalence. Then your qualification, combined with our further training, is equivalent to the journeyman's certificate for electronics technicians for industrial engineering.
However, no traditional training is completed at the academy.
No. These are individual pillars that you can put together yourself for the future. Electricians come to us who want to be trained in the field of renewable energies. Others come from external craft businesses and complete a refrigeration license course with us. If they pass, they are allowed to work with the chemicals used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems.
This is what external companies offer their employees as further training?
Exactly. This is a cooperation with the Guild for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology Berlin-Brandenburg. In other courses, we train people who come to us from the Federal Employment Agency for retraining, among other things.
Are they just men or also women?
The skilled trades are still a male domain. Unfortunately you have to say that. So far we have welcomed two electricians from Colombia. But: One now works for us as a project manager, the other as a mobile trainer. So both have made careers. We would be happy if there were more women.
