In our article series “Testia Experts”, we present short interviews with our employees – the experts that really make Testia what it is. In this issue we speak with Katharina, who explains how she started as a working student at Testia, then took over different roles in different departments before taking the lead on the training department for Germany.
You can also watch this interview on YouTube.
What is your career path and your job at Testia ?
Hello, I’m Katherina, I am the head of training for Germany. I started six years ago already, as a working student in the quality department – among the engineering department – before officially joining the quality department after I graduated.
Afterwards, I became the assistant of Holger Speckmann, who is the managing director for Germany. And after some time, I then took the position of head of training here in Germany.
I never thought I would start in that kind of area, working here at Testia or in aviation because I initially studied teacher education, which is something very different.
But in the end, with my knowledge I think I can share more methodic and didactic ways of teaching.
And, I’m very happy to be here because it’s always interesting and varied!
What kind of certifications does Testia training centers deliver?
We are providing certificates for the aviation area but I’m happy to announce that we are now expanding our business, not only for aviation. We are now preparing our first SHM (structural health monitoring) Academy in Stanford at the University. This will be the very first SHM Academy worldwide.
It’s a unique concept and we try to have it here in Germany too.
What actions Testia develop to address the lack of skilled professionals in NDT?
We have here in Germany the NDT Cadet Academy, which is at the moment focused on the UT (ultrasonic testing) method and we are now expanding to also offer this same NDT Cadet Academy program for the ET (Eddy Current testing) method. Our first NDT Cadet Academy for ET will actually start in July.
In my opinion this is a very important topic because we have a lot of interested people who want to get into the aviation area or to become inspector and our NDT Cadet Academy program is aiming at supporting them to become certified professionals in that area.
We are happy to support everybody in that sector and we hope that we have a positive input in the aviation industry.
I think it’s quite a nice project because a lot of people are becoming successful inspectors and we also have a lot of people from the NDT Cadet Academy who are now working for Testia, and a lot of people are collaborating with them.
So I think it’s an important impact we have here in the training center for everybody and every entity.
What do you like the most about your job?
What I like the most at my job is to have every day a challenge. Honestly, I have every hour a new challenge!
This is very interesting for me and very special because every day I get to learn something new. I always get to know different kind of people and as a head of training I also work a lot with customers as well as with participants and trainers.
So I can learn from each area and it’s never getting boring.
Any advice for people starting their career?
The most important advice I have is to not give up and let sometimes things go and flow. Just follow your path, be patient and trust in the process. I actually think that I am a good example since I studied something totally different and now I’m here. I’m happy and I recommend it to everybody.
Just do your thing, what you like and be yourself!
Watch the video interview on YouTube
Thanks for taking the time for this interview!
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