How you don't forget the patient as a person
Basic course, main course, school-practice alternation and entry requirements
The education to foundryman technician is a vocational education under the main area technology, construction, and transport. This means you alternate between attending school and working in a real business, where you gradually become trained in the trade. You learn not only theory in a classroom but also the craft in practice by standing by the melting furnace and molding station together with experienced colleagues.
§The way in: basic course 1 and 2
If you come more or less directly from primary school, you typically start the first part of the basic course (GF1), which lasts about half a year. Here you get a broad insight into the technical main area and find out which subject suits you. If you are a bit older or already have a plan, you can skip directly to the second part of the basic course (GF2).
GF2 has an extent of about 20 weeks — about half a year of schooling. It is your bridge between the broad clarification and the actual trade.
§The main course: where the craft sets in
When you have an apprenticeship agreement with a company you proceed to the main course. It's here you spend most of your time — out at the foundry working on real tasks trained by journeymen and masters. School periods lie as short intensive blocks between practical periods so theory and practice constantly work together.
The school periods in the main course are divided into several blocks of varying length, where you deepen your knowledge in casting techniques, casting methods, quality and finishing. Between blocks, you take what you've learned back to the company and test it on the workplace's own products.
§School-internship alternation in practice
The very idea of an alternating education is that the two learning forms strengthen each other. At school you get theory language and basic methods under controlled conditions. In the company you meet production's reality — delivery deadlines customer requirements large ovens and heavy pieces. That interaction means that as a qualified foundry technician you can both explain why and carry out how.
| Phase. | Typical content | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Basic course 1 | Broad technical clarification | Vocational school. |
| Basic course 2 | Trade direction toward metal and casting. | Vocational school. |
| Main course | Training in the trade + school blocks | Company + school |
| Conclusion | Journeyman's exam | Virksomhed/skole |
§Entry requirements and admission
For it to harden faster
Because casting technician is a small and specialised trade, the main course takes place as a whole in one location in the country. This means that as a student from anywhere in Denmark you could end up living at the school during the weeks when you attend school — something many experience as a strong professional and social framework.