The OTTO IT Bootcamp: A fight against a lack of vocational education

At the beginning of last year, I was given the opportunity to complete an assignment away from the scheduled assignment of an IT trainee. Where? Right there, where I can do my part to help solve the issues I mentioned. In the training team with my trainer Anne Schierholz. After an analysis of the current situation and various research projects, five essential points emerged: responsibility, trust, freedom, feedback and reflection. To obtain support, I contacted permanent IT professionals at OTTO and met Stephan Kraus, Björn Kaiser, Christian Finckler, Robert Hahn and Benedikt Stemmildt, among others. After many appointments, decisions and great overcoming of all parties involved, the OTTO IT-Bootcamp came into being under my leadership.

What is the IT bootcamp actually?

For four weeks, the new IT trainees go through talks and sessions on various IT topics. During this time, they are not only provided with OTTO-specific content, but also with IT basics, giving them an advance insight into departments, tasks and their future training.

The topics taught include:

Scratch; HTML, CSS, JS; SQL; JAVA; LEGO Mindstorms; ITIL; architecture of the OTTO IT landscape and discussions with department heads of OTTO IT. The modules are designed differently depending on the topic. The JAVA seminar, for example, is spread over three days. While on the first day the basics such as variables, logic and control structures are taught and consolidated through exercises, on the second day there is an introduction to object-oriented programming, and on the third and final day what has been learned is put to the test in exercises. While the JAVA seminar thus pursues an active orientation, in modules on topics such as "Security" or "ITIL" the basics are taught by professionals from OTTO-IT in the form of lectures. Constant feedback ensures that the project goes according to plan.

But that is not all. Learned knowledge is deepened and further expanded via biweekly tutorials. In this way, the company can compensate for what the vocational school cannot.

Impressions of the participants:

"I think the bootcamp makes a lot of sense, because it's run by authentic people ha lten who have a lot of knowledge of the subject matter ." "Good preparation, good competence. Thank you for taking the time." "It's super that the lecturers not only have theoretical knowledge (like at a school, for example), but also put this into practice."

What we have achieved together is not only well received on our own campus, but is also honored from outside. Last December, for example, together with Christian Finckler, I was able to convince a jury of experts in Berlin of the merits of the project and win the Human Resources Excellence Award 2014 for OTTO in the category "Corporate Learning and Development Strategy," beating out Telekom and Bertelsmann.