December 7 - Global heavy lift crane and material handling equipment manufacturer Terex is staking its future supply of skilled technicians on apprenticeship and training schemes to counter potential future shortages of skilled labour.

Terex products that support heavy lift operations include crawler cranes, rough terrain cranes and quay cranes.

The company is currently training around 100 young men and women to become construction mechanics, industrial mechanics, machinists, and mechatronics specialists at its own training workshop in Zweibrücken, Germany. FourTerex staff members work as dedicated full-time instructors and teach the skills the trainees need in an environment that closely mirrors the conditions found in actual production settings.

Trainees on the schemes have been entered in various German and international mechanical and welding competitions, bringing back significant silverware to the Zweibrucken-based company.

A recent example saw Thomas Maske, a construction mechanic in his third year of training, win first place in the gas tungsten arc welding (GATW) category at the national Jugend schweißt welding competition held by the DVS(German Association of Welding and Related Processes) in Hamburg in October.