The Scientific Society for Production Technology (WGP) has launched a nationwide campaign for young talent in engineering professions. It began with the "TECHventure - Technology is more than math" school rally on September 20 and 21 at EMO Hannover 2023. On two mornings, WGP young talent recruiters came into contact with around 80 pupils and their teachers, according to WGP President Prof. Jens Wulfsberg. It is precisely this direct exchange that is to be expanded. The aim is to proactively approach young people, as the much-discussed shortage of young talent is not only evident in companies.
It is also dramatic in some cases at universities and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find student and academic staff. According to Prof. Wulfsberg, who is also Head of the Laboratory of Production Engineering (LaFT) at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, research projects are at risk if this continues. The association of leading German professors of production science had already pointed out in spring 2023 that the decline in student numbers was taking on alarming proportions and that a trend reversal was currently not in sight. The aim is to get young people between the ages of ten and 18 interested in technology and motivate them to study it.
The nationwide WGP network of 43 institutes with over 2,000 employees is intended to help with this. It branches out to regional level. In this way, children and young people can be addressed in individual schools and districts in almost all federal states. in workshop cases with teaching materials on a topic such as robotics, AI or renewable energies, all WGP institutes make it possible to approach school groups and teachers with little effort and even if they lack internal expertise. There are and have been crash courses in robot construction, workshops on kohlrabi milling, a workshop safari, future days such as Girls' Days and much more. The existing know-how is to be collected centrally from the first quarter of this year and made available online with protected access. WGP also plans to launch a competition at the beginning of 2024. All WGP faculties can take part. The most innovative approaches will be rewarded with attractive prizes, for which a generous sum of money has already been approved.
