HZB is one of the best trainers in Berlin
Christina Herold (right) accepted the award on behalf of the instructors at HZB. Together with the HZB, eight companies in Berlin were honoured by the employment agency for outstanding training. © Agentur für Arbeit, Berlin-Süd
The Berlin-South Employment Agency has awarded the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for an innovative procedure to select applicants for apprenticeships and dual studies not only on the basis of their grades, but also to include communicative and social skills. A total of eight Berlin companies were awarded the Certificate for Young Talent Promotion 2019/2020.
In addition to the outstanding quality of the training, the decisive factor for the award was an innovative selection procedure, which was first introduced in the field of IT and now also for training in office management. All applicants receive an invitation to the selection procedure, without regarding the school certificates. The trainers get to know the young people in group discussions and observe how they solve tasks in a team.
"In doing so, they can get a good idea of their social skills, but also their motivation," says Christina Herold, training coordinator at HZB. This interest, also in applicants "who are only convincing at second glance" was expressly recognised by the Employment Agency.
Due to the Corona regulations, Christina Herold accepted the award certificate on behalf of her colleagues. "Training has a high priority for us at HZB," she says. "We have found that this selection process gives us great Auzubis who fit well into the teams and with whom we are very satisfied," emphasises Christina Herold. The selection procedure is to be extended to the other apprenticeships at the HZB in the future.
The HZB offers apprenticeships/dual studies in nine professional fields. The instructors are:
IT specialists: Manuela Eckert, Heiko Kreth
Office management: Cornelia Reuper, Juliane Siegmund, Sven Hinzer
Precision mechanics: Christian Remus, Katrin Tietz
Gastronomy: Mariola Nadolski, Edwin Junginger
Mechatronics, Electronics: Uwe Grabe
Physics laboratory assistant: Jörg Beckmann
Dual Informatics: Olaf-Peter Sauer, Anita Zahr
Dual radiation protection: Guido Buchert, Peter Kate
Dual Mechanical Engineering: Lars Drescher
- Marcel Risch has been appointed Professor at the Freie Universität BerlinMarcel Risch was appointed to a W2-S professorship in the Department of Physics at Freie Universität Berlin in August 2026. His research group has been transformed into the department 'Mechanisms of Sustainable Electrocatalysis'. Risch investigates the fundamental mechanisms of electrocatalytic reactions and, on this basis, develops knowledge- and data-driven strategies to improve electrocatalysts for the sustainable production of hydrogen, fuels and chemicals.
- Hatice Mutlu appointed to the Helmholtz Institute HIPOLE in JenaProf. Dr Hatice Mutlu is the new professor of sustainable polymer chemistry at HIPOLE Jena, the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications. On 17 August 2026, she visited the HZB campus in Berlin-Adlershof including the BESSY II lightsource and discussed future collaboration with researchers and the board of directors.
- Special prize by Jugend Forscht awarded to former school internShaoxuan Wang has won a special prize in the Jugend Forscht competition for her project ‘Smart Capsules – intelligent microcapsules for glucose-dependent insulin release’. She designed the project as a “special achievement” for her A-levels. To carry out the experimental work, Shaoxuan was able to spend a further two weeks in the laboratory at the HZB Institute for Electrochemical Energy Storage, where she had completed a school internship two years earlier.