Three job boards. One central database.
The apprenticeship job board brings together people looking for an apprenticeship and the businesses offering one. Since February 2024, we have been supporting and modernising the TYPO3 platform – with new features, the move to TYPO3 12 and a prepared next step: TYPO3 13 with a central data connection and dedicated URLs that make individual apprenticeship occupations directly findable.
An established platform with complex dependencies.
The platform brings together apprenticeships, internships and holiday jobs. The listings are synchronised directly with the chamber's database. Businesses can also submit their vacancies via dedicated forms.
When we took over the project in February 2024, the system had evolved over many years. Several parallel data connections, no consistent version control and outdated technical structures made maintenance difficult.
Rather than rebuilding the entire platform, we are modernising it step by step while it stays live. Familiar processes remain in place while we renew the technical foundation in targeted steps.
What we have developed since 2024.
Technical foundation
We converted the project to Composer, introduced consistent version control and standardised the processes for testing and publishing.
Updates and version upgrades
In addition to regular security updates, we updated the platform to TYPO3 12 LTS. The switch to TYPO3 13 LTS has been prepared.
New functions
We extended the job boards with additional information about the company and the tasks involved. Companies can add a logo to their submission. Links from apprenticeship listings to social media channels and a video have been prepared.
Data protection and accessibility
We brought the platform in line with data protection requirements. The changes for digital accessibility have been implemented on the test system.
Findability
We have prepared dedicated URLs for occupation-specific result lists. Once live, they can be reached without using the search form.
Apprenticeships, internships and holiday jobs at a glance.
The next step: a dedicated address for every occupation.
At present, the job boards' result lists can only be reached via search forms. Individual occupations have no URL of their own under which the matching listings could be opened and linked to directly.
We have therefore prepared descriptive URLs for the individual occupations. Once they are live, search engines will also be able to reach these result lists directly. The listings are still maintained centrally; the editorial team does not need to create additional content pages.
For TYPO3 13: one central connection instead of several access paths.
Over the years, several ways of accessing the chamber's database had built up in the code – some duplicated, some no longer in use. For the move to TYPO3 13, we merged them into one central connection via the TYPO3 database layer. It will go live with the new version.
From then on, changes to this connection will no longer have to be made in several places in the code. This simplifies maintenance and makes future extensions easier.
The apprenticeship job board in action.
The screen recording (18 seconds, no sound) shows the apprenticeship job board of the Hamburg Chamber of Crafts: an occupation is selected from the “Apprenticeship occupation” drop-down list, with the number of vacant apprenticeships shown next to each occupation. Alongside, the apprenticeship counter shows the vacancies per training year and the total for Hamburg's skilled trades.
Three job boards, one shared foundation.
How we help with similar projects.
Taking an established TYPO3 system further?
Would you like to modernise your existing TYPO3 website or add new features? We review its technical state and work out with you which processes should stay and where changes make sense. From there, we plan the next steps.
