It sounds so cute: Kindertanzgruppe Sonnenschein [Children’s Dance Group Sunshine] … like smart little girls and boys with plaits and neatly parted hair, in little checked skirts and white shirts, who, to the accompaniment of recorders and the violin, give the performance of their lives at Granny’s 90th birthday at the retirement home. And then it hits you: punk, hard-edged, defiant, a protest against convention, at volumes far beyond the pain threshold. Playing the base in the Fulda band: Niyet. 19 years old. A delicate, almost fragile-looking person. If it wasn’t for that sparkling, wide-awake look in her eyes and her hair that rebels against any kind of order a comb might try to impose – as though she had been electrified. And if it wasn’t for her bass, blasting out from the stage. Brutal. Bloodcurdling. “I just like extremes,” says Niyet with a broad grin.
And more than anything, Niyet likes getting on with things. After doing a student internship in a car repair shop, it was clear that she wanted to do an apprenticeship as an automotive mechatronics technician after leaving school. “That was my best experience during my school days,” she realised. The fact that she, a girl, would be taking up an occupation in a male-dominated field didn’t bother her in the least. From the start, she knew that she could make it. Despite the widespread lack of trainees, she initially only received rejections in response to her applications, the reason generally being that the companies had no women’s changing rooms or ladies’ toilets. “Then at some point I met a girl who was employed by EDAG. She said, “Send us your application, we are always on the lookout for women. As a result, I ended up in the apprentice work shop in Fulda,” says a delighted Niyet.
This makes it very difficult to believe that her greatest worry is, of all things, stage fright if she is appearing before a large group of people. “I always get quite worked up, and end up shaking at the knees. When that happens, I think: they’re only people after all. Then it doesn’t seem nearly as bad if I stutter or say something wrong. Once I’ve got over that, then I find my stage fright has gone.” Life can be so simple. With a little sunshine in your heart.
Today, she is the first and only girl doing the apprenticeship programme for automotive mechatronics technicians. “Klaus, our boss has always encouraged and supported me,” says Niyet. There was no need for her training supervisor to be worried about her feeling out of place in the workshop full of boys. “I have a big mouth, and am more than able to hold my own.”
But she also liked the fact that she was given a lot of attention and appreciation when she started her apprenticeship: “They arranged for me to have work clothes in my size, and provided me with a really nice female colleague who I could turn to if I needed advice or somebody to talk to,” reports Niyet. She even met Dr. Lutz Helmig, EDAG’s majority shareholder, when, during a visit to the company one day, he was presented with a group photo of her department. He encouraged me to continue on my manual/technical career path. He wanted to see more women working here and contributing to the company’s success.”
Niyet had originally toyed with the idea of doing an apprenticeship with one of the vehicle manufacturers. “But then she came across EDAG. A real stroke of luck, because it meant I could stay in my hometown, Fulda, and here, I can also experience a much broader and more varied range of automotive engineering development.” Of the various training stations she passed through, she found electrics and electronics particularly fascinating. “I really enjoyed generating circuit diagrams, fitting vehicles with cable harnesses and sensors,” she reports. “Actually, we are all always involved in a very intensive exchange of information here. I can always ask the journeymen if there is something I don’t understand, and they are happy to explain everything to me.”
Niyet always wants to know the ins and outs of everything. “To enable us to find out how an engine works, there are several practice engines – and of course other vehicle parts – that we can take apart and put back together again. This makes it much easier to understand,” she says. The fact that she works for a technology developer and not in a classic car repair shop makes the apprenticeship even more attractive to her. “Instead of just repairing customers’ cars when they have broken down, we create conversions of new vehicles, work with prototypes and technology carriers. This means you are always helping to shape the future.”
That friends and other people her age are still at school, and maybe even thinking about doing a university degree, while she has fully immersed herself in the working world is of no concern whatsoever to Niyet. “This is what I chose to do. I learn something new every day, and nobody can ever take that away from me,” she explains, adding “I’m young, the world is my oyster.”
Niyet can often be heard saying that she has a “big mouth”. She really doesn’t need to, as it’s not something you can easily ignore, but nor is it in any way unpleasant. She is very popular at EDAG, is also the Chairperson of the company’s Youth Representation, plays in another rock group apart from the Kindertanzgruppe Sonnenschein, likes sport and is often out and about – as teenagers are. Just that she does it all at once. “I just cannot sit still,” she admits.
