BMIN’s First Business Apprentice
During the summer months of 2024, Bühler Minneapolis celebrated its first-ever Business Apprenticeship graduate, Katie Hentges. As the founding student, Katie helped shape the new program and set a strong example for future participants. Her curiosity and adaptability fueled her own growth and benefited the team, showing that embracing new challenges and change drives both personal and collective success.
Jackson Schmeling, September 2025
Katie Hentges joined Bühler Minneapolis's new Business Apprentice Program immediately after finishing high school. Taking on a role that hadn’t existed before, Katie played an important part in shaping what the business apprenticeship experience could look like at Bühler. By navigating new responsibilities and learning on the job, she helped set the stage for future apprentices, marking an important step for both her and the company.
Her role wasn’t just unique at Bühler, it was a first for the German American Chamber of Commerce’s ICATT (Industry Consortium for Advanced Technical Training) program nationwide, which trains skilled employees for advanced roles through a mix of classroom learning and hands-on experience. Since Katie was the first business apprentice, there was no ready-made roadmap, so both Katie and her mentors had to figure out what a business apprenticeship should look like. Patrick Bolt, her apprenticeship manager, explained it best: “We needed someone courageous, self-reliant, and eager to learn. Katie brought all of that and more.”
We needed someone courageous, self-reliant, and eager to learn. Katie brought all of that and more.
Patrick Bolt,
Apprentice Academy Manager, BAA - BÜHLER Apprenticeship Academy
To achieve this, both Katie and the program’s leaders had to be transparent with each other from the beginning: the apprenticeship would be an evolving experiment, shaped by her feedback and lessons from every challenge along the way. Katie’s journey would serve as the template for all those who follow.
With no formal structure or previous graduates to guide her, Katie embraced the unique challenge of being Bühler Minneapolis’s first business apprentice. She and her managers set clear goals and feedback points as they worked to build her role together. “There was no blueprint, and they didn’t always know what to do with me,” she recalled later.
Without peers in the program, Katie proactively built her support network by reaching out to colleagues and finding mentors with encouragement from her managers. Relying on digital resources, she learned complex business tools from scratch and adapted quickly.
There was no blueprint, and they didn’t always know what to do with me.
Katie Hentges, Junior Buyer,
PUR - Supply Chain BMIN
As a first-generation college student, Katie navigated new professional settings with determination. Each department’s unique environment meant she quickly learned the importance of adapting, building confidence and asking for help, even when it was daunting. Through perseverance, she discovered new strengths and resilience.
Each new challenge brought a chance for growth. As Katie rotated through Human Resources, Purchasing, Logistics, Accounting, and Marketing, she gained a broad range of business skills and built valuable connections across the company. This experience allowed her to identify the areas she was most passionate about, setting her up for future career success.
By the end of her two-year apprenticeship, Katie had gained certifications such as the Bühler Apprentice Academy Certificate of Completion, the Train the Trainer Certificate from Germany, and the German American in the United States of America Certificate, along with hands-on business knowledge and clarity about her strengths. “Not only does it help you advance your career by many years, but it also helps advance your personal life,” she said. Emerging debt-free with a two-year associates degree, and with a full-time role as a Junior Buyer within the BMIN Procurement Department, she enjoyed a career jumpstart that few her age could match.
Not only does it help you advance your career by many years, but it also helps advance your personal life.
Katie Hentges, Junior Buyer,
PUR - Supply Chain BMIN
Katie’s feedback directly shaped improvements in the program for those who followed. Now considered a mentor for apprentices during their rotation in the BMIN Procurement Department, she provides guidance to new apprentices, supporting their transition and easing the path she once had to develop alone.
The ripple effect of Katie’s experience is being felt across Bühler, and beyond. Her successful journey proved that structured, high-quality business apprenticeships can work in a U.S. office setting, challenging the perception that apprenticeships are only for the trades or technical jobs. All the departments within Bühler Minneapolis have now grown eager to host the new business apprentices. Katie’s journey was so successful that other companies like Endress+Hauser, a Swiss-Based Engineering Services Company, have decided to apply the same program and its structure to their business in hopes of achieving the same success that Bühler Minneapolis has experienced.
This innovation is helping to modernize workforce development, demonstrating that practical business training offers a valuable alternative to traditional college pathways. The program’s dual education approach prepares young professionals for both immediate contribution and continued growth within the company. Katie remains a celebrated success story within Bühler Minneapolis, and her legacy in both the Apprentice Program and the culture that resides in BMIN are forever lasting. Her pioneered path ensures that future business apprentices have a model, and a mentor to look up to as they begin their own journeys within Bühler.
As economies grapple with talent shortages, shifting labor demands, and the rising cost of higher education, vocational training is gaining traction as a practical and scalable solution. Switzerland’s dual-vocational model – combining classroom instruction with structured workplace experience – has long been viewed as a benchmark. Bühler, with over a century of experience in this system, has adapted and implemented the model in 26 locations worldwide. Watch the video in which Tracy Bayer, Vice President of Human Resources, Bühler North America explained how Bühler has introduced and developed the apprentice program for North America.
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