We know our job
Whoever has ideas is in the right place in the skilled trades, since craftspeople realize and develop ideas and find solutions to problems along with their customers. Training for employment in a craft and building skills in continuing education towards a master diploma builds the best foundation for assuming responsibility for oneself and for others. The training and continuing education system which organizes education in the skilled trades is one of the most crucial building blocks for successful founders and entrepreneurs.
Equipped with skills and knowledge specific to the trade, as well as expertise in corporate and personnel leadership, entrepreneurs in the crafts create jobs and training positions that are more stable and less susceptible to economic trends than others. The Business and Economic Group for the Skilled Trades (Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftsgruppe Handwerk), with its network of apprenticeship programmes and vocational schools, provides the best foundation for the transfer of knowledge and know-how and is thus a model for successful self-employment.
The master craftsman’s diploma is the continuing education programme in skilled trade for entrepreneurs and business purchasers. Those who decide to pursue a master craftsman’s diploma are investing in the right direction. Quality and qualification are closely linked for the master craftsman, since they guarantee the continuity of the transfer of knowledge and are the craftsman’s way of building confidence with regard to customers, which is the basis of responsibly organized self-employment.
The Wiesbaden Chamber of Skilled Trade with its over 24,000 member companies, which employ 125,000 workers, of which about 10,000 are apprentices, trains and represents about one third of the Hessian skilled trade workforce in Upper, West and Middle Hessen. The chamber is a competent contact partner for tradespeople and start-up companies. The Wiesbaden Chamber of Skilled Trade holds its main centre of focus in the support of trade-oriented entrepreneurs, from ideas and planning through implementation of the start-up into an independently operative business.
Start-up companies are increasingly the new raw material for a dynamic economic region. Whoever founds a company has ideas, courage and self-confidence. Entrepreneurs and business acquirers open up opportunities for vocational independence, since every fourth company is a candidate for future takeover.
The Chamber of Trade is participating in just this area with its consulting services, its StarterCenter, entrepreneurial seminars and business planning workshops as well as the “nexxt-change” business exchange at www.nexxt-change.org.
The yearly trade fair for start-ups and young entrepreneurs provides young businesspeople with comprehensive information and firsthand experience from the Chamber of Trade. The chamber, with six business management consultants, offers extensive consultation and service offerings for young people in the crafts who are willing to form start-ups or enter into acquisitions. Combined with the job training and technology centres at Moltkering and on Brunhildenstraße, the chamber supports entrepreneurs and acquirers in the realization of their ideas.
At the gateway to the regional capital of Wiesbaden, the chamber runs its representation of interests, self-administration and service center in a modern setting on Bierstadter Straße. At this location, members and staff can get in contact with decision makers across the city and state, organize training and continuing education programmes and maintain consulting and service functions for the member organizations.
Each year over 600 young craftspeople are prepared for master examinations at the educational institutions of the Wiesbaden Chamber of Skilled Trade, and 2,500 proprietors and employees take part in specialized and continuing education programmes. More than 3,000 business management, technical, legal or trade-specific consultancies are held throughout the year.
The trades stand for variety, individuality, creativity, and quality. More than 3,000 skilled trade establishments located in the state capital of Wiesbaden encompass a job and activity spectrum of around 100 different occupations. The palette of specialists ranges from baker to clockmaker, from tailor to dressmaker to cabinetmaker, artisans who are essential in shaping everyday life. They build houses, supply customers, construct and maintain infrastructure, brighten our daily lives and our living environment, and make life in the city worth living.
Young entrepreneurs with talent, ability, diligence and knowledge are called on to preserve the old and create the new, guarantee the provision of individual goods and services for the daily needs of residents, and fulfill the demanding requirements of customers.
For all those who are interested in providing for the make-up of facades and interiors, for the houses and the people in the city, and for those who wish to create a sense of safety and well-being and feed customers with crisp bread and good sausage, self-employment in a skilled craft offers exactly the right framework for realizing those ideas today and creating jobs for tomorrow.
The author has been the executive director of the Wiesbaden Chamber of Skilled Trade since the year 1997. After studying economic science in Gießen, Harald Brandes entered the services of the Wiesbaden Chamber of Skilled Trade in 1980. He is also director of administration of the Hessian Trade Convention and the Worker’s Association of the Hessian Chambers of Skilled Trade (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Hessischen Handwerkskammern).
