Introducing Luca Michel, the AVR's first site representative for apprentices

Luca Michel, 22, lives in Schönenbuch, where he attended primary school before going on to secondary school in Allschwil. Following his compulsory schooling, he completed an FMS ('Fachmittelschule') course and went on to train as a radiology specialist for two semesters. He then took a year off to travel and improve his English. A friend who had already done an apprenticeship as a polymechanic at Roche piqued his interest in the 'Roche world', so he applied for a 'taster' apprenticeship as a chemical and pharmaceutical technician. After passing the aptitude test, he was informed that he could start his apprenticeship in August 2020 at Building 93 in Basel – great news for him. During the second year of his apprenticeship his line manager, Samuel Vogel, asked him if he would be interested in representing the apprentices in the Employees Association, something he took as a great honour. Following talks between the President, Adnan Tanglay, Samuel Vogel, Dr Matthias Nettekoven (Head of Apprentice Training) and Bruno Weissen, then Head of HR, and after everyone had given the green light, he was received with open arms by the whole Committee, who offered him their support in his new role. He greatly appreciated being able to attend AVR's Centenary Offsite Meeting: he found this very interesting and instructive, and was also able to learn how things worked in other areas.

Soon after starting at the AVR he realised that many apprentices were not aware of the Association, and rectifying this became one of his major goals. He had quite a few ideas about how to draw apprentices' attention to the AVR, which he would first have to address with the President. He was also motivated to get to know more people and listen out for apprentices' concerns, so that he could raise them in the AVR. After two years in office at the AVR he feels he is ready to pass on his experience to his successor; he can also imagine standing as site representative.

He plans to complete a vocational matura once his apprenticeship is over or to gather experience as a chemical and pharmaceutical technician for a while. He also wouldn't rule out working as a vocational trainer in the future.

As a counterweight to his work, Luca Michel regularly takes part in the Fit@Roche training programme. He also enjoys meeting up with friends at the weekend so that he can return to work refreshed afterwards. In the summer, he likes riding out into the countryside on his motorbike.

I would like to thank Luca for the frank discussion and wish him all the best and every success for his time on the AVR and for the rest of his apprenticeship.

Written by Nicole Drexler, AVR Assistant