Investing in the future

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Investing in the future

Starrag doubles its training capacity at the Rorschacherberg site

Starrag AG is expanding the training centre at its headquarters in Rorschacherberg, Switzerland with double the space, additional trainers and broader training expertise. The goal is to offer optimised vocational training for our own trainees as well as for learners from all over the region. In this way, Starrag is addressing current developments in the labour market – especially the shortage of skilled workers.

Marcel Capeder, Team Leader at the Starrag Training Center, emphasises: “With our optimised training programme, we primarily want to inspire young people to explore technical careers and pass on the highly technical skills that our company is known for”. He has no doubt that this programme will succeed, because it is built upon a strong foundation. Starrag AG – the largest employer in the municipality of Rorschacherberg (canton of St. Gallen) – is a major manufacturing company in the surrounding region. Even if not everyone is familiar with the company thus far, watching the chips fly on our machines and seeing the finished high-precision parts usually gets the young people interested in our training programme.

Starrag AG currently has 25 trainees. Most of them are being trained as polymechanics and design engineers, but we also offer training for computer scientists, logistics specialists, automation specialists and business people. “This is a considerable offering given that around 200 workers are employed at the headquarters in total”, says Sasa Colic, Head of Group Human Resources at Starrag. Sasa Colic and other managers at the Starrag Group consider the training programme to be very important, stating “our most valuable asset is competent, motivated employees. By providing the right basic training, we are securing the future of the next generation and therefore the future of our company”.

“By reorganising the programme, we are creating the required structure for the vocational training reform that is currently in progress and will take effect in two years.”

Marcel Capeder, Team Leader at the Starrag Training Center

Green light for investment

Due to the growing shortage of skilled workers in the labour market which has been prevalent for a number of years now, the plans to expand the training centre at the Rorschacherberg site quickly received the necessary support from the Executive Board. And Marcel Capeder adds another good reason for the expansion: “By reorganising the programme, we are creating the required structure for the vocational training reform that is currently in progress and will take effect in two years”. Since he himself is working as part of various committees to tackle the reform of the eight basic technical vocational training courses of the MEM industry (mechanical, electrical and metal industry), he knows exactly what matters: “A core element is modularising job descriptions, which are also reflected in the training”.

For Starrag, the expanded training centre not only creates optimised training conditions for its own employees. It is also intended to support other companies in the region with vocational training – in addition to external training centres Swissmechanic in St. Gallen and LIBS in Heerbrugg. Therefore, Starrag is building a broad portfolio that includes basic courses and inter-company courses as well as supplementary and refresher courses. “Following our expansion and with two additional vocational trainers who joined our team, we now have the expertise in the areas of planning, manufacturing, assembly and the joined technology house”.

The new training centre is extended over two floors, with the additional space accommodating welding and automation workplaces as well as manual work stations. As an example, there are flexible designed training walls that can be used to provide trainings on the logic of PLC controllers using pneumatic installations. Existing CNC as well as conventional machinery are being extended as well.

Training can be fun — with projects that inspire

“A critical factor for successful training is not just our equipment. It is utmost important that we inspire enthusiasm for the profession”, says Training Manager Capeder. “To do this, we need to consider how young age people start their education nowadays. They are much more familiar with using tablets and mobile phones than screwdrivers and files”.

For the future, it is crucial to convey digitalisation and mechanics as one entity, even if they are worlds apart. “The best way to achieve this is through project work”, explains Marcel Capeder. He mentions the development and production of a robotic arm and control system as recent examples. Another stand-out project involved a turning roller for fishing, which is characterised by its lightweight design and extremely smooth operation. “The trainees gained experience with the 3D printer, which will form a key part of the curriculum in the future”, explains Marcel Capeder. “As a rule, we try to find project work that has some practical value and can be sold in small quantities. This practical aspect means the trainees learn that quality and a fair price really matter when it comes to market-oriented products”.

From the company foundation to the present day

One of the most popular projects is overhauling old machinery – preferably machines used by the company throughout its over-100-year history. Starrag AG started as a machine construction company founded in 1897 by Henri Levy. At the time, the company achieved exceptional success making machines for embroidery factories. These included an automatic threading machine as well as a bobbin winder. The small coils for shuttle embroidery machines on which the thread had to be wound for processing are called bobbins.

Marcel Capeder is delighted by the enthusiasm of the trainees who take on different tasks to retrofit these original mechanical machines that are over 100 years old. These include foremost understanding the mechanical processes and identifying defects. This is followed by repair work, producing or procuring some parts, assembling and finally fine tuning the respective machine. “So far, we have been able to overhaul every old machine so that it functions again as it originally used to”, Capeder says.

Starrag also offers projects such as the creation of a jet engine. Current topics are explored in the specialist departments, when trainees complete the second part of their four-year training period and are confronted directly with the tasks of the future of a professional life.

Success throughout the canton

The success of Starrag AG’s training programme is proven by the good and consistent achieved results in the final tests of the trainees. “In particular, our polymechanics and design engineers have completed their training with the best grades compared with other cantons several times in the last few years”, says Marcel Capeder, who points out another success factor: “The final grade is one thing. The other thing, which is more important in my opinion, is transferring the skills learned to the professional world. The fact that we are doing this extremely well can be seen in our current workforce, around one-third of whom come from our own training programme”.

One of the Starrag training champions is Roman Forter, whose final design work – the optimised five-axis programming of a blisk segment – was considered the best in the canton. He impressed not only the examiners but also the specialists at Starrag to such an extent that he was able to oversee various training courses and projects in China and India. Following his professional studies at the university of applied sciences, he now works asa technologist in Rorschacherberg:

“The training programme at Starrag was perfect for me. The programme allowed me to experience what high-tech can really mean – in theory and practice. That motivated me to do my best – with the result that I now have a job that inspires me every day.”

“In particular, our polymechanics and design engineers have completed their training with the best grades compared with other cantons several times in the last few years.”

Marcel Capeder, Team Leader at the Starrag Training Center

School for life

Head of Group Human Resources Sasa Colic is convinced of another fact besides professional training: “At Starrag, we make sure that ’soft’ skills are also taught. We share values such as trust, fairness, proud and respect. Therefore, the mindset of the trainees is important to us. We want to enable them to think and act in a solution-oriented, entrepreneurial and responsible way as part of a team”.