Nathan Hannah and Steven Ogle — a pair of recent graduates from the Cullman County School system — walked out of the offices at Rehau, Inc. Tuesday as the first beneficiaries of a new apprenticeship program intended to funnel aspiring young people toward rapid advancement in skilled jobs for employers willing to invest in their training.

At a reception Tuesday at Rehau’s main offices in south Cullman, officials from the German automotive supply company, along with leaders from Wallace State Community College and Cullman County Schools, celebrated the success of the inaugural Rehau Academy apprenticeship program.

An offshoot of the Fast Track dual enrollment program, which divides participating high school students’ time between classes at their local school and Wallace State, the Rehau Academy applies the German model of cultivating workplace skills — a model that streamlines the training process by pairing apprentices with their future employers.

“In Germany, the kids split their education when they’re 16 years old. At that age, they make a decision whether to continue down an academic path or in a vocational path. About 60 or 70 percent go into apprenticeship programs, which last about three years. When those kids are then about 18 or 19, they’re done with that first part of their education, and they go on to do their full time jobs in their vocation,” explained Rehau Cullman plant manager Albert von Pelser. “Most apprenticeships in Germany serve as the breeding ground for the future workforce of a company.

“That model is the basis for what we have done here, and it is exciting to see our first graduates come through this program and enter employment at Rehau at the Operator level, which is the highest-skilled job we have at this site. That process usually takes years and years — if it happens at all — for our regular assistants who are hired on at the entry level.”

Under the new program, high school students can apply for enrollment in an intensive two-year training process that integrates Rehau’s injection molding skill set with the education they receive in their junior and senior years.

It’s a rigorous program; one that divides the students’ time between the classroom and on-the-job training at the plant. Rehau pays for the training and provides trainees with materials and a $900 per-month starting supplement; students commit to learning the company’s processes and to working at Rehau for an agreed-upon period of time once they’ve graduated.

“I started at the end of my junior year, and now here I am,” said Ogle, a 2016 Hanceville grad. “We lost several people early on. There’s this strange thing called ‘work’ that you have to be patient enough to do, and this program is definitely not a cakewalk.”

As Rehau’s in-house curriculum leader for the injection molding training program, Sascha Jenssen spends more time with trainees than any other instructor. Jenssen said the German model streamlines an education and training process that otherwise can function inefficiently for both student and prospective employer.

“In Germany, you can take two students who have been trained 200 miles away from each other, and they can perform at the same level because the curriculum is uniform,” he explained.

“My role is to guide the kids through the two years of the apprenticeship program, and to teach them what’s needed to do the job. I go eight hours with them here, and I also teach them at the injection molding class at Wallace State. I spend a lot of time with them, and they even come to me with personal things as they work through some of the distractions that can affect their training.”

Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette said the program could serve as a model for future similar partnerships between academic institutions and local industry.

“We would like to use this model to get other industry in Cullman involved,” he said. “We haven’t gotten to that point yet, but we’re ready, if those opportunities open up.

“It’s still new to everyone, so it’s been kind of a process. But the results speak for themselves.”