A common ground for physics laboratory technicians
Physics laboratory technicians from the industry and public research sectors have been attending external training courses in the Department of Physics for a decade.
External training courses for physics lab technicians take place centrally at D-PHYS in the first two years of the apprenticeship programme. The aim of these courses is to ensure that apprentices working in various settings in German-speaking Switzerland all share the same subject-specific knowledge base.
As Cornel Andreoli explains, not every workplace requires technicians to know how to use a voltmeter or an oscilloscope with digital memory, for example. Andreoli planned and organised these courses ten years ago and has been responsible for the training programme ever since. He was supported from the start by Oliver Schwager, who runs the courses for first-year apprentices, as well as by Marcel Huwyler and Leo Hauf.
In addition to the basics of various measurement procedures, Andreoli and Schwager teach apprentices how to carry out experiments, how to work with a method and how to record results correctly. It's important to them that what the apprentices learn can be applied directly through practical exercises.
This year saw apprentices, vocational trainers, teachers and cantonal representatives come together to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the external training courses in the physics department.
Information on apprenticeship programmes for physics laboratory technicians can be found on the external page Physiklaborant website (in German).
ETH Zurich receives the contract and financial support for the organisation of external training courses from the Association of Physics Laboratory Technician Instructors (AGLPL). In this way, the association fulfills its agreement with the Secondary School and Vocational Training Office of the Canton of Zurich (MBA) to organise such courses.
Translated from German by Gaia Donati