Personal account of a graduate
As a state-examined engineer for building construction and civil engineering, I have been employed as site manager since February 2007 by the engineering consulting firm TS- Ingenieurgesellschaft, on Parkallee 1 in 99867 Gotha, Germany. An important core area of our activities is municipal road construction and, in this connection, pavement of traffic areas with concrete blocks and slabs.
On the basis of the continuing education program for a specialist engineer for pavement construction, I had hoped to expand my theoretical knowledge in this sector and to obtain recognized professional qualification that would reflect to our customers this specialization in pavement block and slab construction. The continuing education program was organized in four modular courses of study, which as a rule took place from Thursday to Saturday. The lectures in theoretical fundamentals were supplemented by practical seminars. The seminars were exclusively conducted by experienced experts in the field. In addition, comprehensive seminar documentation was distributed. Information on the events and the seminar contents was available from an online portal especially created by EIPOS GmbH for the participants of the continuing education programs. The seminars were interactive in design and, as a result, discussion rounds with the respective lecturers took place. Owing to the good mix of the participants from business and administration, in-depth knowledge was gained in the discussion sessions. It often became evident in actual practice that planning theory has its limitations. The continuing education program concluded with a written test and a minor thesis followed by its defense.
