Interenterprise training at a technically high level.

The external training of additional, technical user knowledge is an important training module, especially for agricultural and landscaping apprentices. For this reason, there are 13 DEULAs (Deutsche Landkraftführerschule - The German School of Agricultural Engineering), which meaningfully complement the vocational and technical education with practical and technical content. The pedagogic principle consists of “learning and experiencing”. It is characterised by activity-oriented teaching with a high share of practical work. As a result, apprentices are supported in their independent learning and their willingness to learn is encouraged.

DEULA in Witzenhausen takes a look back at its approx. 70-year history. Founded in 1953, it moved to its current location in 1960 where it has undergone different development and conversion measures. It also includes a large practical hall in which it is possible to work on machines of all sizes, independent of the weather. “From the start we maintained a good partnership with the market of familiar agricultural machinery manufacturers,” explains Managing Director Henry Thiele. “The most recent generations of machines are normally made available to us. Weidemann has also supported us really well in the past, enabling us to extensively train our apprentices on the newest technology.” 

Since 2022, DEULA Witzhausen has its own Weidemann wheel loader 2080. In light of the difficulty with machine availability on the markets over the last few years, Managing Director Henry Thiele decided to take this step. “We have to ensure that we are able to continue training our apprentices, even when machines aren’t made available to us by manufacturers,” Henry Thiele reiterates. Until now, it has always worked excellently and collaboration with the Weidemann distributor HFT has been faultless. Alongside their own 2080, there is also currently a T4512 from Weidemann in the yard to be able to explain and show the properties of telehandlers. 

Around 2,500 young people are trained annually at DEULA Witzenhausen. Generally, two to three courses run simultaneously. Between 20 and 30 people from Hesse and Thuringia attend each course. The interenterprise training is a fixed component of vocational training and is determined by the Chamber of Agriculture. Alongside operating technical equipment; health prevention, occupational safety and back therapy training are among the mandatory topics. Every farmer attends DEULA approximately twice per training year for approximately one week. The apprentices in horticulture and landscaping even attend three times. 

Thanks to the large hall for practical work, the teaching content can be provided in Witzenhausen independent of the weather. The hall provides sufficient space to practice valuable manoeuvres on several machines at the same time. As a result, DEULA in Witzenhausen is regularly supplied with new machines from Weidemann, just like the other 12 DEULA training centres in Germany. It is therefore possible to guarantee that the young apprentices of the so-called green occupations are comprehensively trained on the right machines and can operate them safely. It is important to Weidemann that up-to-date machine models are available at DEULA for the respective training content.