Unlike many of her friends, juliane kollmer decided to train in a skilled trade. "I’ve said since I was a little kid that I wanted to be an optometrist", she tells. As a child, however, she stayed out of the family business run by her father, jochen, in grabengasse. After finishing school, the 23-year-old nevertheless began her training as an optician. In the meantime, she has passed her journeyman’s examination as best in the chamber, has passed her master’s examination and has completed additional training as an optometrist. For her achievements, she was awarded the master prize of the bavarian state government. "I love my job, she says. Because it is varied: it advises customers, needs manual dexterity and medical knowledge.
As a state-certified optician, she measures customers’ eyes, determines their visual acuity, grinds eyeglass lenses into shape and measures the fit of contact lenses. In short: "it’s about achieving the best possible view for the customer", bath kissinger says. As an optometrist, she also examines the eyes from a medical point of view. She is able to recognize malpositions and abnormalities of disease. "Optometrists are not allowed to make a diagnosis, but we can refer you to a specialist, kollmer explains. This could help, for example, in the early detection of illnesses.
Home as an alternative
When time permits, she helps out in the family business; otherwise, the young master optician is currently employed by an optician in munich. She wants to gain professional experience there, especially as an optometrist. It takes a lot of practical training to be able to evaluate photos from the back of the eye well. In principle, she could well imagine returning to her home country later on. "I like the coarse city, but to live there all the time, it’s nothing", she says. It is not out of the question for her to join the family business in the fourth generation.
In times of scarce skilled workers and difficult company transfers, father jochen kollmer was naturally pleased if the succession in his company could be arranged in this way. Already now he is glad about the support of the new generation. "Getting skilled workers is enormously difficult", reports the master optician. The company has to make much more of an effort to find qualified employees. While the company still manages to find trainees on a regular basis through personal contacts and career information events at schools, the situation is much worse when it comes to specialists. For two employees – one retired, one on parental leave – he had recently been looking for replacements. Without success. "Through the family it was temporarily intercepted", reports kollmer. In order to find someone new, he had to reorganize the business: he hired an office worker from outside the industry to do administrative work, so that the opticians could concentrate more on the craftsman’s work.
Job fair for skilled personnel
The shortage of skilled workers is a concern for many entrepreneurs in the region. "Companies have to cancel customer orders because they don’t have enough staff", reports bernadette koth, district spokeswoman for the bad kissingen junior business association. Expansion plans also fall through due to a lack of qualified specialists. Rural regions such as the district of kissingen are struggling in particular with the migration of skilled workers to larger cities and metropolitan regions. "And this despite the fact that we also offer attractive opportunities, she says. This applies not only to the job offer for oneself, but also to the career opportunities for one’s partner, as well as to good offers for families, such as childcare. In order to counter the shortage of skilled workers, the junior chamber of commerce is organizing an event on saturday, 12. October, the first "job fair bad kissingen. The fair is intended to give companies and the region the opportunity to present themselves. It is aimed at specialists and managers as well as graduates. You can find a detailed report on .