Courses: Business administration, accounting and controlling
Company site: Neu-Isenburg
1. What particularly attracted you to start your career at Lorenz Snack-World with the cooperative-education programme?
As an employer, Lorenz Snack-World was particularly attractive because it has an exciting presence on the international markets where it does business and is a well-known manufacturing company with a large, well-structured controlling department.
2. Which areas have you worked in so far during your practical placements?
I’m still in my first practical phase, so the list of departments isn’t very long. But it will grow steadily as the semesters go by.
My focus is on controlling, so Lorenz assigned me to the controlling department for my whole first practical phase, which makes it easier for me to find my feet. I spent the first six weeks at the production site in Hankensbüttel, where I got to know our central stores, the production facilities themselves and the production and controlling business area. Apart from a one-week stay at the second production facility in Neunburg, I’ll spend the rest of the practical phase at our headquarters in Neu-Isenburg in the demand-chain-controlling section.
3. What do you think of your training so far?
I learnt a great deal about a wide range of areas during the theoretical phase, including quite a few things that will be useful in my private life, too! On a personal level, I was very impressed by DHBW Mannheim (the Mannheim cooperative-education university). My fellow students are all really nice and helpful, and the lecturers teach the course material in a compact way that is easy to understand. They’re even prepared to help outside of the lectures if needed.
Within the company, I got a thorough introduction to the structure of the company, our products and the markets where we operate. I’ve been shown the IT software we most often use and so I would be able to make a contribution to the daily business as soon as possible.
I’m impressed by the really positive atmosphere in the company and the way that different departments all work together to make sure the processes work in the best possible way.
4. Why did you choose cooperative education (duales Studium) and not a full-time academic course?
I see a lot of advantages in cooperative education, particularly the combination of theory and practice. The cooperative-education programme makes the knowledge tangible, for example, by allowing me to contact colleagues who work in areas relevant to my studies and ask them for a practical explanation. I can gain an idea of real-life applications for the subjects we study.
Another advantage is the small class size at DHBW, which means we have a closer relationship with our lecturers, making it easier to understand the material and also to form study groups.
Another advantage that shouldn’t be ignored is the allowance that our employer pays us, which continues during the study periods and means I can focus completely on my studies.
5. Why would you recommend the cooperative education programme at Lorenz Snack-World to others?
In particular, from an economic point of view, Lorenz is a very interesting company. As a manufacturing company, it offers a large variety of tasks and types of work, from planning, raw materials purchasing, production, dispatch and other areas through to ensuring shelf availability for our products at our customers. So, as students we have the chance to see the real-life, in-company manifestation of almost every aspect covered in a business-administration course.
Further, the training scheme includes practical work at our German production sites and an international placement. By working at different sites, I can quickly build up a large network of contacts that I can turn to whenever I need.
