IREKS for girls – Girls’ Day offers insights into the world behind the scenes at IREKS
To promote a free career choice, the so-called Girls’ Day has taken place in Germany since 2001. The aim is to actively introduce girls to professions that are typically performed by men. In this way, they can get a taste of different activities and decide more consciously which profession they would like to take up or what suits them best. In the context of a sustainable, varied promotion of young talent, IREKS supports the initiative and was once again involved this year.
On 28 April 2022, interested young women across Germany had the opportunity to take a closer look at male-dominated professions in practice during Girls’ Day. At IREKS, we opened our doors to eight girls aged 12-14 to provide insights into our industrial-technical training professions and to present our company in this connection.
Two of our female trainees (Luisa Haas, food technologist, and Michelle Friberg, warehouse logistics specialist) led the participants from station to station as they shared their first-hand experience. They explained what particularly enthuses them about their profession and why they decided to train in their field.
In the course of the day, the participants were able to get to know various areas of the company and have a go at different tasks. The first stop was our Logistics Centre, where the organisation of our goods distribution was discussed, and the girls were able to see how IREKS packaging units are prepared for collection and storage. In our Technical Centre, the girls tried their hand at making their own mixes; the resulting cookies were of course tasted later in the day.
The IREKS workshop covered different ways of working metal, and the girls were able to practise engraving by adding their initials to a key ring. This way, they also had a souvenir of their day at IREKS. Afterwards, we made a stop at our electricians’, who gave insights into their everyday work and introduced the participants to possible work tasks in a playful way. In the game “The hot wire”, a loop of metal had to be run along a piece of wire without touching it. The girls skilfully mastered this not so easy task!
Finally, the participants were to get to know our laboratories and thus our IREKS IQ concept in more detail. The topics of research and development, food law, quality assurance and quality management were the focus here. What is behind each of these could be experienced live, among other things, when raw material, flour and product analyses were carried out.
At the end of Girls’ Day at IREKS, a joint snack was provided. In the meantime, first impressions were exchanged in a feedback session. “Some of the participants expressed the wish to get to know IREKS even better in the context of an internship”, reports Annika Schmidt, trainee as Euro industrial clerk, who was in charge of organising this year’s Girls’ Day. With this in mind: We hope to see you soon again and were very pleased to have you with us!