Welding talent Kacper gets chance to learn trade
Kacper Jessa from IJmuiden is 15 years old and attends the secondary special education school Het Mill Dune in Santpoort-North. Kasper developed a tremendous passion for welding several years ago. Through Techport, contact was made for Kacper with Jaap Zijlstra of Post Staalbouw in Velsen-Noord. They gave him the opportunity to do an internship two days a week to learn the real trade of welding.
Kacper developed his passion by watching videos, "I was looking on YouTube and came across someone who was welding. I then started looking further and that's when I started thinking more and more about it. I just like what people can make with welding and I want to learn that too." Jaap Zijlstra, director of Post Staalbouw says, "Within our company we are quite fanatical about training apprentices. We regularly have students walking around from Technisch College Velsen, Kennemer College or Nova College (BBL), only Het Molenduin was new to us. We think it's important to give everyone a chance and give them a taste of engineering and the steel products and parts we make." Pieter Theissling has been working at Post Staalbouw for 25 years and is Kacper's apprentice supervisor: "My job is to guide Kacper, explain and check his work. Kacper has been with us for about 6 weeks now and I already notice that he has become more confident. He is a good student who really wants to learn and also asks if he is doing it right."
Kacper: "I've been able to weld small pieces now, and regularly watch a welder, but first I'm still working on metal cutting and finishing and sovereignizing. I still like it now and can't wait to really do it all myself soon. The atmosphere here is also very nice." Jaap: "For us it is really incredibly fun to train such a boy. I can recommend it to everyone. He can now really get a taste of the trade and as an employer I also just think it's important to give all students a chance. And nice that Kacper indicates that the atmosphere is good, that does say something about our company."