Twelve young people became HHLA employees in January after successfully completing their apprenticeships. The company took on all of its apprentices: nine experts in Port Logistics, one electronics technician, one industrial mechanic and one mechatronics engineer.

All of the commercial apprentices performed their examinations ahead of schedule – after two-and-a-half years instead of three. Despite a shorter apprenticeship and the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic last year, the new HHLA employees achieved above-average results. “I am proud of our apprentices’ good performance and of HHLA for successfully maintaining its high apprenticeship standard even under the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic,” says André Konopatzki, Head of the HHLA Technical College. According to Konopatzki, this is all the more remarkable given that many companies did not register their apprentices for the spring examinations due to coronavirus.

“Some of our vocational college classes were cancelled as a result of the coronavirus restrictions. However, our training manager provided us with home study material and helped to get us back to work as quickly as possible,” explains Chris Leutert, now a qualified expert in Port Logistics. He is very grateful to Konopatzki and the technical college team for this. Another success factor for him was the close contact between the HHLA apprentices and the strong support they provided to each other. Leutert is one of the two newly trained experts in Port Logistics who are aiming to study part-time with the support of HHLA Personnel Development.