The shaft - at the Grevenbroich hydro plant, this is the key tool for the precise cutting of aluminum strips. The thinnest, 13.6 millimeter narrow strips, typical of the fins of car radiators, are generated by a shaft that is made up of around 400 fitting pieces; 108 knives alone. It takes time: four to five hours.

In the main company, Helge Haas often sets up knife shafts for cutting aluminum strips. For a day his son Henri looked over his shoulder. "With the parents in the workplace" is the name of this new campaign by the Realschule Bedburg for their sixth graders. The professional coordinators in the college, Urs Douvier and Sandra Balster, initiated them. Even at this age, students should be able to take a first - and very personal - look into the world of work: with father, mother or, alternatively, uncle or aunt. So you have a familiar support when discovering a new, strange world.

At Hydro, Henri Haas (13) was allowed to come with his father Helge. He was already impressed several times in the morning:

• How big and spacious this Grevenbroich plant is!
• What an "Oschi" is the big ten-ton forklift that also drives around here!
• And just: what a "wave" is here, very different than in the water!

Even a 127 mm bridge (as in the photo), the complete insertion tool with shafts for 12.7 cm wide, mostly lacquered belts, such as those required by the pharmaceutical industry, can only be set up after well over an hour. < / p> Enough exciting stuff for the student's work afterwards: Afterwards he had to write an essay about this trial day, at least one page long.

Hydro is happy to support an offer such as "With parents at work" as far as possible. "We find this initiative very commendable because it fits well with our existing contacts with several schools," said Cordula Dressler, HR Manager for the Grevenbroich rolling mill. "We want to introduce children and young people to the industrial world of work and to our plant - which is why we are happy to agree to this."