Twinning
Tredomen House
Tredomen Park
Ystrad Mynach
Hengoed CF82 7WF
01443 864321
Hi, we're two students from Ludwigsburg (Germany) on a three months working experience here in Caerphilly (Wales). We are organising the 50th anniversary of the twinning partnership between Ludwigsburg and Caerphilly.
Age: 22
Living in: Ludwigsburg (Germany, Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Studying: Public Administration and Management
Work experiences:
City of Ludwigsburg (6 months)
City of Stuttgart (Capital city of Baden-Wuerttemberg, 3 months)
City of Markgroeningen (3 months)
Caerphilly County Borough Council
Age: 23
Living in: Remseck am Neckar (Germany, Baden-Wuerttemberg)
Studying: Public Administration and Management
Work experiences:
City of Ludwigsburg (6 months)
Police Ludwigsburg (3 months)
Administration district of Ludwigsburg (3 months)
Caerphilly County Borough Council
We are both studying ‘Public Administration and Management’ at the University of Applied Sciences in Ludwigsburg in Germany. Our course lasts for 3.5 years. We started studying in September 2007 and will finish in March 2011, so it is about one year until we graduate and become ‘Bachelors of Arts – Public Management and Administration’.
Our course is special because it combines theoretical and practical parts.
Our course started with a six-month placement at the City of Ludwigsburg, which is twinned with Caerphilly County Borough Council.
We learned about the structure of German administration, different departments and the way government works and also the different laws.
After this introduction in public administration we went to university and had theoretical lessons for 1.5 years. Every six months we had to sit plenty of exams in which we had to apply our theoretical learned knowledge.
After the long period of studying at the university we have 14 months to do four different placements. We also have the possibility to do one of them abroad.
So we decided to apply for Caerphilly County Borough Council (CCBC).
Mrs Christine Suess, responsible for twinning in Ludwigsburg, contacted Rosemary Mathews, responsible for twinning in CCBC.
From our work experience in Wales we expect to improve our language skills in writing and speaking. Also we want to get to know new people and learn new things from the people we are working with. And of course we want to find out how the administration in Wales operates and hopefully take this knowledge with us for our work in Germany.
Certainly we want to see as much as possible of Southern Wales and the United Kingdom in general. We like to be outside a lot and enjoy the beautiful countryside and nature; we brought our trekking shoes with us as well. =)
Hopefully the weather will be fine so that we can’t verify that there is bad and rainy weather in Britain all the time. Furthermore we hope that we can’t verify another prejudice – the one of the horrible tasting food in Britain.
We want to enjoy the time we stay on the green island so that we can reminisce gladly about our placement.
If you want to read about our experiences and to get an impression of the beautiful Welsh landscape, please visit our Facebook page.