My apprenticeship at the Berentzen Group

May we introduce? This is Louisa. Louisa started her apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at the Berentzen Group´s Haselünne site in August 2021. We asked her a few questions about her training and learned some exciting details...

After graduating from high school last summer, Louisa started her apprenticeship. Louisa became aware of the career opportunities at the Berentzen Group through an information day at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. Since she comes from nearby Osterbrock, she was already familiar with Berentzen. The proximity to her home, but also the exciting fields of work and the diverse tasks in the day-to-day life of the Berentzen Group were decisive points for Louisa to decide on an apprenticeship in our group of companies.

The first days as a part of the Berentzen Group

At the beginning of every apprenticeship at the Berentzen Group, introductory days are taking place to give the new apprentices enough time to get to know the company better. Louisa told us about her first week:

"At the beginning we were given a guided tour of the Berentzen Hof. It was very exciting to see the various halls and rooms from the inside. After that, we went through all the departments, where we then introduced ourselves and the respective department briefly explained what is done there. In some departments, such as marketing or IT, they held presentations that gave us an insight into their work. In addition to the tour of the Berentzen Hof, we were also given a guided tour of the production, which I found to be one of the most exciting things, it was really impressive.

We also got behavioral training, played familiarization games and went to a gym here in Haselünne where we got to do a fitness check, that was cool too."

Procedure of the apprenticeship

During her apprenticeship as an industrial clerk, Louisa goes through many different departments, gaining insights into various areas of work. We were interested in which departments she has already been through and which ones she particularly liked:

"In my first year, I already went through six different departments. At the very beginning, I was assigned to the telephone exchange for six weeks. After that, I went to the marketing department, to the non-alcoholic beverage sales department at our subsidiary Vivaris, to the HR department, and then to the branded spirits sales department, each for three months at a time. At the moment I'm working in the team of the export department.

I have to say: so far I've liked the marketing and HR departments best. While I was working in the marketing department, I was involved in really cool projects, such as the Landlikör shoot - that was really fun. But the varied tasks in the HR department and the employer branding campaign I was involved in at the time were also really interesting."   

Insights from the daily work of a trainee at the Berentzen Group

To gain an insight into Louisa's day-to-day work as a prospective industrial clerk, we asked her to describe what an ordinary working day looks like for her in her current assignment department, Export:

Louisa's workday begins every morning around eight o'clock. The first thing she does is to check her inbox. Have any new e-mails come in? Have any new orders come in that need to be processed? Otherwise, her tasks mainly consist of writing order confirmations and writing and sending invoices. However, her tasks vary from day to day, depending on where support is needed.

Around 12:30 p.m., it is already time for lunch break, which Louisa spends together with her colleagues, either in the break room or, in good weather, outside in the courtyard.

Favourite Memories

In the first year of her apprenticeship at the Berentzen Group, Louisa already has experienced quite a few things. We were curious what Louisa remembers most fondly so far.

"I especially enjoyed the summer get-together this year! It was nice to get to know my colleagues better outside of the office. The atmosphere that evening was very relaxed and you felt very comfortable.

Another thing I remember fondly was the trip to the sites in Minden and Stadthagen. We went there together with the new trainees who started their apprenticeship at Berentzen this summer and took a look at the other locations. That was very interesting to see, because unfortunately we didn't do that last year due to Corona."