The education's structure from basic course to journeyman certificate.
How school and apprenticeship work together throughout the programme
The path to becoming an automation technician is structured as an alternating program: you alternate between school and training in a company until you hold a journeyman certificate. This way you gain both the theory of electrical, control and automation systems and the practical routine you'll need when you set up, program or troubleshoot an installation yourself.
Automation Technician is one of several specialties in what is collectively called automation and process education. This means that at the beginning you share a path with future automation fitters, lift technicians and automation technicians, and along the way you choose to specialise in automation technician.
§Basic course 1 and 2
If you come more or less directly from 9th or 10th grade, you start on the basic course at a vocational school. The 1st part of the basic course is broad and typically lasts about half a year, where you are introduced to a specialized direction – often under a heading such as robotics, technology and automation – without having committed to one specific trade yet.
The basic course's 2nd part also lasts about half a year, and here you direct yourself towards the trade itself. You work with the basics in electrical engineering, measurement, control and the first programming tasks, and the course is completed with a test that must be passed before you can move on.
§Main course – alternation between school and training
The main course is the long and largest part of the training. It alternates between school periods, where you are in the classroom working with electrical theory, PLC programming, robots, hydraulics, pneumatics, and troubleshooting, and training periods, where you are at a company and use it all on real systems. Most of the learning really happens at the company.
§Total duration depends on your specialisation
How long the education lasts depends on which speciality you choose on the automation and process education. The pure automation technician speciality is one of the longer ones. If you later build on to automation technician, the course becomes even longer. If you choose instead to complete as automation fitter, it is a shorter course.
| Phase / specialty. | What's happening | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Basic course 1 | Broad professional foundation approx. half a year | Vocational school. |
| Basic course 2 | Targets the trade, approx. six months, ends with an exam | Vocational school. |
| Main course | Alternation between school periods and company training | School + company |
| Automation Fitter | Shorter apprenticeship option (approximately 2½ years) | School + company |
| Automation Technician | The full technician specialty (approx. 4½ years) | School + company |
| Automation Technician | Build-up on top of technician (approx. 5½ years) | School + company |
§Entry requirements and admission
To enter you must in principle have completed primary school with at least 2.0 on average in both Danish and mathematics – or something equivalent. If you already have a signed training agreement with a company you can also enter that way, even if you don't meet the grade requirement in the same way. As a student you usually apply via optagelse.dk.
§Completion and journeyman certificate
The course is rounded off with a final exam — a journeyman's exam — where you must show that you master the trade in practice. When the exam is passed and training is complete you receive your journeyman's certificate.
“School teaches you the theory of control and automation. Training makes it routine. Only when the two work together can you stand with a system that has stalled – and get it running again.”