DavyMarkham - News
Austrian technical students gain work experience in Sheffield

There has been something of a continental flavour about Sheffield heavy engineering firm DavyMarkham lately, with two young Austrian students and a German postgraduate all enjoying periods of work and language experience at the Prince of Wales Road works. Michael Berger and Michael Struber, 19 year olds from HTL Hallein in Salzburg, spent some time honing their engineering skills alongside DavyMarkham's home-grown apprentices. They are pictured with the company's Apprentice Training Supervisor, Peter Kerfoot, shortly before returning to Austria.

A little earlier, postgraduate Marco Roselius left for his home in Germany after spending a year as Marketing Assistant with DavyMarkham, gaining valuable experience while completing his MSc in Human Resources Management with Sheffield Hallam University. During his time with the company, Marco helped set up a new marketing database and assisted with translations of talks with, and presentations to, German-speaking customers, helping on a number of new contract bids.

Interestingly, the two Michaels attend just the type of technical institution that DavyMarkham MD, Kevin Parkin, is advocating in this country, to train young talent for British manufacturers, and which he himself attended in Sheffield. Both Austrian teenagers are in the fourth year at H�here Technische Lehranstalten (HTL) Hallein, a technology and crafts orientated higher college that specialises in disciplines like mechanical engineering, product and system design, cabinet making and stonemasonry. These HTLs are an important part of Austrian vocational education and are unique within Europe.

Michael Berger and Michael Struber study Industrial Engineering in HTL Hallein's upper technical school, covering subjects like CNC machining, milling, welding, applied mechanics and production engineering, as well as German, English, Mathematics and PE.

DavyMarkham's MD, Kevin Parkin, once had a similar grounding in engineering at Sheffield's former Central Technical School. Originally established to provide a technical knowledge base to support local manufacturing industries, the CTS placed an emphasis on the practical and academic aspects of engineering and construction, originally awarding its own diplomas before adopting nationally-recognised O and A levels.

"Rather than steering pupils toward 'soft' GCSE topics, it would be great if schools in this country reintroduced core technology and engineering skills to the curriculum, like the youngsters of my generation acquired from technical schools," says Kevin. "We could take a leaf out of Austria's book and introduce technology-focused colleges and encourage our youngsters to consider vocational apprenticeships, as a viable alternative to university."

Further enquiries to DavyMarkham at Prince of Wales Road, Sheffield S9 4EX, telephone 0114 244 9971, email kevin.parkin@davymarkham.com

Issued: September 2009