Half of all girls and young women in the workforce are employed in just three service industries: commerce, health and social services, and hospitality/gastronomy. In contrast, the share of girls and young women who enter the workforce in trade and technical jobs continues to be quite small. This is why MEKRA Lang wants to support female trainees in fields that have traditionally been considered “male”. For the fifth time in a row we hosted Girls’ Day on our premises.
On March 28th, a group of ten interested and motivated 5th-grade through 10th-grade girls visited us for a day to familiarize themselves with traditionally male jobs, such as toolmaker, industrial mechanic, physics laboratory technician and process mechanic for plastics and rubber technologies. The objective of Girls’ Day is to help girls decide on their future career paths and to give them the opportunity to explore some lesser known fields.
After Mrs. Döbler-Scholl gave the group a warm welcome in the Ergersheim room, Mrs. Paal provided an overview of the company’s history and used our tried and true image video to give them an idea of what MEKRA Lang is all about.
Afterwards everyone was off to the workshop at Lang Technics where the girls created a workpiece consisting of a brass cube and an injection-molded plastic part. They also had a look at different work stations, including one that showed the effect of pneumatics.
After creating their workpiece, the girls were taken on a tour of the company for a view behind the scenes which started in the new main administrative building and ended in the cafeteria.
Last but not least, they learned about the work of a physics lab technician. They performed a few tests, including measuring the thickness of their cubes and determining the hardness of water. At 3 p.m. this year’s Girls’ Day came to a close with a brief feedback session where the girls received small gifts from MEKRA Lang.
We hope that the girls will fondly remember Girls’ Day at MEKRA Lang and that we were able to give them an idea of our world and help them with their future career decisions.