Popular internships abroad back after pandemic break
In 2021, a. hartrodt could offer places in Europe to four apprentices – twice in Prague.
"It was wonderful and a great experience" – that's how Aylin Arik and Selin Sevim-Langen sum up their four-week internship abroad at a. hartrodt in the Czech Republic. A few days ago, the two 23-year-olds, who are undergoing vocational training as Management Assistant for Freight Forwarding and Logistics Service, returned home to Hamburg from Prague. Sevim-Langen specifically chose a. hartrodt as a training company because of its internationality and its many foreign branches: "I want to emigrate. For that, it's important to get to know the working methods and structure abroad." Arik also wanted to make the same experiences – even though "Istanbul in Turkey was originally planned".
Covid thwarted plans
"Since spring, we have been checking which countries are eligible in Corona times," reports Martin Argendorf, who is responsible for training at a. hartrodt in Hamburg. Sevim-Langen preferred "an English-speaking country outside Europe". But it wasn't just travel restrictions or a poor security situation that thwarted the plans: "In many of our offices, an internship abroad is not feasible due to the pandemic, because we work in mixed operation, partly mobile from home," says Argendorf.
Own projects with concrete benefits
When internships in Prague were made available at short notice, the apprentices quickly had to organize everything themselves – including train travel and a shared apartment. "This is an important experience," emphasizes Argendorf. In Prague, they took on their own projects: Arik (third apprentice year) prepared her colleagues for paperless work from December 2021. In the future, a. hartrodt in the Czech Republic will be connected to the CargoWise One supply chain platform. Sevim-Langen (second apprentice year) created an Excel freight calculator for rail import LCL shipments in the Eastern Europe region: "This allows freight prices to be determined more quickly."
In 2020, a. hartrodt was unable to offer any internships abroad due to the pandemic. Therefore, Argendorf is all the more pleased with how well the program has started up again in 2021: "Two more apprentices were in Belgium and Switzerland." For 2022, he is targeting six places.