E2E from the perspective of an employer

Kragujevac: Kragujevac has several companies which have more than once participated in the “Education to Employment” programme. “Sunce Marinković” and “AMM Manufacturing” are among these companies. Their representatives highlight the benefits from the trainings for which they say that are a passageway to the new staff who possess skills and knowledge as required for a specific work position.

“Sunce Marinković” was three times in E2E

“This is our third cycle of trainings through which about 25 people has passed. Currently we have five of them and six are employed with us. There were more but they have left our company in the meantime”,  Đorđe Kosovac from the “Sunce Marinković” HR department said.

He stressed that the company is satisfied with the results, primarily due to the fact that the training “enlarges their pool of potential labour force”.

“Of course, the training is also beneficial for the candidates considering that, even if they do not stay on with us, they obtain specific knowledge and a paper that may be valuable for them on the market”, Đorđe said.

In “Sunce Marinković” company, the candidates received the training for the production and fitting of aluminium and PVC doors and windows.

“Some of the candidates did better and made a progress faster, but some of them did not do that good. It was of primary importance that the candidates receiving our training come from a related professional background. Most of them come from the mechanical background and they were the ones who did the best”, Đorđe expressed his opinion.

The things relevant for employment of the trainees included the level of knowledge and the level of skills they have acquired, but also their attitude towards work.

“We are happy with the workers whom we got through the Education to Employment training since they achieve best results, fit in the picture we would like to make, and have integrated well in our company”, Đorđe said.

We were told in this company that they find the “Education to Employment” project also important for the mentors who were training the candidates. They mentors were actually the experienced employees of the company.

“They, too, have undergone the training and acquired new skills. I would say that they have broadened their horizon, shifted their focus from being exclusively work, performance and goal-oriented to having a pedagogical approach to the trainees. They are motivated to do that and, consequently, everything works very well”, Đorđe observed.

E2E is a fast and sound training

“Through the Education to Employment programme we reached the candidates whom we trained, at our work positions, to do the jobs that we need. This year we had about 20 trainees and slightly over a half of them stayed on to work for us after they completed the training for aluminium welder”, AMM Manufacturing training and recruitment officer Vladimir Marković said.

He added that, for this training, they did not select their candidates based on the educational background but rather based on how much interest they showed and the assessment whether they can do the job of a welder or not. They trained on-the-job in the company and their progress was monitored by mentors.

“We have work positions of welding instructors who have extensive experience and are really devoted to training new staff”, Vladimir said.

He said that he believes it is good that, in a short time period, one gets the welders who can enter the production right away.

“As opposed to dual education which takes three years, this is a faster pathway: the duration of training is three months and the trainees are worked with intensely every single day”, Vladimir highlighted.

For the trainees who were offered employment in the company after they completed the training, Vladimir said that they are good workers. With time they are being assigned increasingly more complicated tasks and obtain increasingly more skills so that they can work on more complex projects.

Finally, Vladimir deduced that the Education to Employment programme is really worthy of high praise.