Girls and gadgets: Girls’ Day at Harro Höfliger
During the nationwide Girls’ Day, students discovered technical jobs and learned how specialized machines at Harro Höfliger are created.
03.05.2017
At Harro Höfliger, the girls learnt what it means to design and manufacture machines.
20 schoolgirls from the Backnang area took the opportunity to get information about machine engineering and technical professions.
Machine designer, technician, electronics technician or control engineer? Trainer and project manager Ulrich Weinbrenner would like to inspire the girls for a career in the technical field.
Technical professions require creativity and precision. The first task of the future design engineers was to draw a capsule.
How does one develop a machine for filling pharmaceutical capsules? Who designs the individual components? And who makes sure everything can be moved and controlled? Packaging machine manufacturer Harro Höfliger provided answers to these questions during the Girls’ Day activities at their facility. At the
Pharma Solid plant in Backnang, 20 girls of grades 7 to 9 spent a day getting to know traditionally male dominated professions in a technical environment.
The schoolgirls from the Weissacher Tal education center had the opportunity to take a peek over the shoulders of designers, mechanics, electricians and control technicians, and to be shown their various work tools – from screwdrivers to CAD programs for design tasks. In addition, Ulrich Weinbrenner, project manager at Harro Höfliger, explained to them how the complex processes in a customer project are coordinated and controlled. His message to these schoolgirls was that technology is not an exclusively male domain; for women in particular, it offers a very solid foundation for the future.
This is also confirmed by HR manager Uwe Amann: “Technical specialization is a highly competitive market. By participating in the Girls’ Day, we give young women the opportunity to expand their horizons for possible careers and to consider the possibility of a
training or a
work-study program with our company.”
Secondary school pupil Isabella doesn’t want to rule out the possibility of a technical career: “I like the fact that technology is about high precision, so that everything works perfectly. That’s my thing.” She has a role model in her own family; her older sister is currently halfway through her
combined work-study in electrical engineering according to the Ulm model at Harro Höfliger.