His uncle knew it right away: an Automation Engineer apprenticeship would be just the right thing for his nephew. His uncle turned out to be right: Silvan Meienberger had looked into a number of different career paths, but after his 5-day trial apprenticeship at Buhler, he made his decision. “After I filled out my application for automation technician, I was invited to do an aptitude test. In addition to questions covering our general technical understanding and our cognitive skills, our ability to work in a group setting was also evaluated”.

Since that point, the 19 year-old Appenzell native is now in his fourth year of training. “What I like most working as an Automation Engineer is its diversity. My tasks include working in the factory, such as, for example, wiring different parts together, and also working at the computer doing different programming tasks”. A highlight of his training was his participation in a multidisciplinary customer project task force: a team comprised of members from different occupational fields was given the assignment of manufacturing a coil spring making machine for an external customer. “The project was a major technical challenge, since Buhler hadn’t manufactured such a machine before”, Silvan recalls. “I really enjoyed the tinkering, coordinating and exchange of experiences involved”.

An additional highlight of his training was the so-called operations-oriented apprentice camp in his second year of training. Teams comprised of about ten members each, from different work disciplines, were given the responsibility of coming up with a camp theme, developing a budget, creating a detailed list of daily planned activities as well as making arrangements for provisions and lodging.

Silvan Meienberger will complete his training in the summer of 2010. “Because I’m also attending an extra-occupational professional baccalaureate, once I complete my internship I will have a choice of going on to earn my degree, or of first gaining professional experience as an Automation Engineer”, explains the 19 year-old. “But I could definitely also imagine a career as an engineer at Buhler”.