Start-up Award
We promote independent thinkers and the self-employed: together with the German Wood and Plastics Association (Bundesverband Holz und Kunststoff, BHKH), SPAX will, for the first time, be awarding an award and prize for start-ups in the joinery trade in 2010. All journeymen and women who want to take their master craftsman’s diploma in 2010 and found their own joinery are eligible to participate and have the chance to win the first prize: €10,000 will be awarded for the most innovative master craftsman’s examination project. "Our Start-up Award is intended to underline the importance of the highest certificate of qualification in joinery", explain BHKH President Alfred Jacobi and Micha Hochstrate, Product Manager Wood Construction at SPAX. "At the same time, we want to encourage young master craftsmen and women to venture into self-employment. Their master craftsman's diploma has provided them with all the necessary skills and know-how."
Applicants are requested to submit the project design and planning documents for their master craftsman’s examination. In addition, they should draft a description of the company they wish to set up and present their business management approach and entrepreneurial attitude and personal strengths on a maximum of one A4 sheet.
Federal Performance Competition
We support know-how. Every year the best young carpenters and joiners do battle for the unofficial title of Germany's Champion Carpenter. The winners from the federal states have 19 hours in which to produce a previously unannounced item. Depending on the workmanship they display here, their chance of success at the German Championships increases. The competition venue changes annually – but SPAX is always there.
Roadshow
We travel the world: as part of the SPAX Roadshow, we’re on tour not only in Germany, but also in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland. Information about SPAX screws, practical tips, professional information for dealers and customers, entertainment and, of course, the opportunity to try out SPAX for yourself – all this and much more for visitors to our SPAX truck!
Open Houses RUHR.2010
Just think: you don’t become European Capital of Culture every year. That’s why we are taking the opportunity and throwing open the gates of SPAX International as part of the RUHR.2010 campaign. On a number of dates throughout the year, guests from all over the world will have the chance to take a look behind the scenes of screw production at our plant and get to know our company a little better.
SPAX supports the work of the KuKuk Kultur für Kinder association
pictures: KukKuk Kultur für Kinder
The KuKuk Kultur association helps to shape living and playing space for children. It creates protected spaces for children so that they can develop better in free play. This is why the association builds playgrounds all around the world – primarily with young people, who can also get to know new, unfamiliar cultures during construction. SPAX supports the work of KuKuk Kultur, for example, in the construction of new playgrounds in Romania. In addition to a lot of wood, SPAX fastening materials were of course also used.
As part of a four-week trip, playgrounds were constructed at three different locations in Romania for the children who live there: in Beltiug, students from the Montessori Secondary School Potsdam (near Berlin) designed and built a porcupine in which you can climb around on ropes and beams between the bristles. A wobbly bridge, a wooden house and a paddling pool also invite the kids of the village to play and enjoy themselves.
In Baia Mare war die Jugendgruppe der Freien Christengemeinde Colmar mit Feuereifer bei der Sache. So entstanden
ein Fußballplatz, gesäumt von einer Kletter- und Schaukelstruktur, eine Zuschauertribüne, eine Feuerstelle und
Sitzmöbel, ein Sandhäuschen, eine Wippe und ein Kreidemalfeld.
In the city of Baia Mare, the youth group of the Free Christian Community Colmar went about the job with great enthusiasm. The result was a football field lined with a climbing and swing structure, a grandstand, a fire pit and seats, a sand hut, a see-saw and a chalk painting area.
And in the small town of Ardud, 32 motivated pupils of the Freie Waldorfschule (Rudolf Steiner School) Gutenhalde (near Stuttgart) built among other things a 'play ship' with a sandpit inside, which they named TONIC. In addition, a climbing frame, a playhouse with swing, a sandpit with slide, a rotating beam and a fantastic birds' nest swing were also built.
The local Romanian children gratefully took possession of the new playgrounds and are having a great time there. But before that, a colourful official opening party was held with everyone involved and the children.
Work experience for refugees
pictures: Copyright „KOFA (Kompetenzzentrum Fachkräftesicherung)
We are committed to our social responsibility!
The refugee project. A story of retired trainers who returned to their training workshop to train refugees in metalworking. The “Kompetenzzentrum Fachkräftesicherung” (KOFA) – or Competence Centre to Stop the Brain Drain – has supported the Altenloh, Brinck & Co. Group throughout this project.
22-year-old Aboubakar Fofana comes from Guinea and is one of the ABC trainees selected by the Employment Agency for the project. Grateful for this opportunity, he told us about his motivation and his desire to attain qualification and secure a future for himself in Germany.
The apprenticeship has shown how eager to learn Aboubakar Fofana is and that he brings not only technical skills but also the basic mathematical understanding required for a successful apprenticeship in the metal industry.
Aboubakar Fofana is currently completing an introductory qualification year at ABC and will start training as a machine and plant operator at SPAX International next year.
The following multimedia report shows how the companies and refugees have experienced the practical phase:
https://www.kofa.de/storytelling/fluechtlinge-im-praktikum
German-Bolivian Architecture Project
pictures: TU Berlin
A team of architecture students from the Technical University of Berlin, led by Professor Ralf Pasel, designed and planned the construction of an agricultural college in Bella Vista, a small village in Bolivia.
The project has been subsequently implemented in several construction phases as an international cooperation with local non-profit partners. The new building now serves as a day school and boarding school for around 75 agricultural science students.
The project forms part of the efforts being made to fight poverty in the rural regions of Bolivia. That’s because in what is South America's poorest country, a huge proportion of the population is still employed in the agricultural sector.
SPAX was very happy to support this German-Bolivian architectural project.
For more background information, go to: http://www.bellavista-code.de/
Engineering project in Uganda
With help from SPAX, German engineers have built a water treatment plant in Uganda (East Africa). “The SPAX screws were a great help.” We’re really pleased to receive this positive feedback!
BSG SPAX 67
The beginnings of our company football team go back to 1995. At this time already, the "SPAX Team" regularly played friendlies against clients or other companies from the region. There was even an important "deciding game" played at the Tivoli Stadium in Aachen! The official "BSG SPAX 67" (BSG = Betriebssportgemeinschaft or Corporate Sports Association) emerged from this sports association in 2008, which is professionally managed by a board elected by its members. Currently, there are 55 active and passive members who support the BSG, and who come both from SPAX and other divisions of ABC.
In its very first season in the league of the Hagen-Ennepe-Ruhr e.V. Corporate Sports Association, our BSG made it to the cup final and in the current season, too, our 18 players are putting up a good show.
Staying fit and having fun playing sport together – this is the motto under which the members train together once a week in the Ennepetal Bremenstadion football stadium on the brand new 4th generation artificial grass pitch. The BSG, with its team made up of players between 17 and 50 years of age, can compete very well with all opponents from other renowned regional enterprises and be successful in its league!
Regional marketing
Westfalenliga – sixth tier footie and we’re right in there! In the 2009/10 season, our “fosterling” TuS Ennepetal reached its highest football league to date, and the NRW-Liga (fifth tier of the German football league system) wasn’t far away either. As the main sponsor, we support football in Ennepetal wholeheartedly and with real expertise.
SPAX CUP
We support THE most prestigious international U19 football tournament around – TuS Ennepetal's SPAX Cup! It’s held every year around Whitsun and attracts over 15,000 spectators from near and far to the Ennepetal Bremenstadion. Notable U19 teams from big international clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United, Boca Juniors, Atletico Mineiro, FC Schalke, Borussia Dortmund and Hamburger SV provide an attractive spectacle for Ennepetal every year. Over three days, the eight teams give their all to win this tournament and show the football world what they are capable of. After all, the top scorer, the best player and the best goalkeeper of the tournament are all selected and crowned, and a number of professional contracts are also signed behind the scenes. Over the years, a number of players who later made it to the international stage have showcased their talent on this stage: Lajos Detari, Jürgen Klinsmann, Dennis Bergkamp, Andriy Shevchenko, David Beckham, Franco Foda, Mario Basler and Stefan Effenberg – all of them played in the Bremenstadion.
