Machine and plant operator – food technology
Production is becoming increasingly automated. The amount of products that are transported along the assembly lines of factories every day could never be manufactured by human hands. Machines are useful because they make our work easier. However, qualified specialists are needed to operate and maintain these highly complex machines and systems.
As a machine and plant operator, orders are received on the PC and work steps are prepared. This means that the machines – for food processing – have to be made ready for operation. It may be necessary to set up or convert them with components, adjust the production processes or operate the machine manually. During production, the processes must be monitored and the intermediate results checked. This ensures that an excessively large number of faulty items is not produced. If faults occur in production, they must be detected at an early stage and defective components must be replaced or repaired.
The training lasts 2 years with 12 weeks of instruction each.
The 12 weeks are divided into 3 training blocks of 4 weeks each. During these teaching blocks, the trainees have all-day lessons. The lessons take place together with the pupils of the 1. and 2nd year of training for the “food technology specialist” apprenticeship. During the block period, they live in the college’s own boarding school.
Here you will find our brochure on the “Machine and Plant Operator – Food Technology” apprenticeship.
An intermediate examination takes place at the beginning of the 2nd year of training. The training ends after 2 years with a theoretical knowledge test in the subjects:
- Production technology
- Production planning
- Economic and social studies
and a practical skills test in the company-specific activity.
The theoretical examinations are taken at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in the respective home town. The practical examination is carried out by the responsible Chamber of Industry and Commerce in your own training company.
After passing the examination, the candidate receives the skilled worker certificate for the occupation of machine and plant operator.
Training as a machine and plant operator takes two years.
After this time, students who have completed their training have the opportunity to complete a further year of school in order to obtain the additional vocational school certificate:
Specialist for food technology
Food technology focuses on the raw materials, semi-finished products and auxiliary materials required for the production of food. The subjects taught are the analysis of food ingredients, development of production processes, comparison and assessment of various pre-treatment methods, mixing and separation processes with regard to product and production-oriented processing and preservation as well as the monitoring of food quality, including aspects of operational quality management.
If you are interested in the job description of a food technology specialist, please click on the link above.