The new training regulations for environmental engineering professions planned for 2024 are expected to be a real breakthrough in terms of increasing the attractiveness and visibility of the industry: The pipe, sewer and industrial service specialist will become the environmental technologist for pipe networks and industrial plants, while the wastewater technology specialist will become the environmental technologist for wastewater management - in both cases also in the female form.
The background to the renaming is to make it easier for young people who want to take up an interesting and meaningful profession to enter the industry. The environmental term in the job title makes it clear to them that they are providing a sustainable service for the preservation of drinking water, soil and water quality with their respective training.
Training will focus on specialised qualifications
The name change affects all four environmental engineering professions and is one of the main changes. However, the content of the respective training courses has also been adapted to reflect the increasingly specialised activities in the individual occupational fields. In future, the core qualification will be shortened to one year of joint training in order to have more time for the specialised qualification. Currently, trainees from all four professions attend school together for 18 months under the current training regulations.
The content of the training framework curriculum for environmental technologists for pipeline networks and industrial plants has also been significantly expanded to include sewer inspection and maintenance of pipeline networks. In the third year of training, the area of "pipework network rehabilitation" will feature more prominently in the curriculum.
The result of the intermediate examination is part of the final grade
Another significant change concerns the form of the examination. Until now, the intermediate examination, the result of which had no effect on the final grade, took place after a training period of one and a half years.
In future, it is planned that the intermediate examination will take place after just one year and that the intermediate grade will be taken into account in the overall result of the final examination. The intermediate examination will therefore have a significant impact on the final result. The extended final examination gives trainers the opportunity to offer trainees more support. In order to ensure that they in turn can pass on the new teaching content in the companies, an implementation aid is being developed, which should be available to companies at the beginning of 2024.
BMWK approval expected by the end of 2023
Reorganising a training occupation is anything but easy. The representatives of the associations - including the DWA, VDRK and RSV - have four exhausting years of planning, discussion and development behind them. The decisive hurdles were overcome at a meeting in the summer. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) is expected to give the final go-ahead for the new training content towards the end of the year. The step will not be finalised until the new training regulations are published.
