Volkswagen Is Mastering Globalization with an Outstanding Team

Volkswagen Board of Management member for Human Resources Dr. Neumann announces apprenticeship initiative: Soon more than 10,000 apprentices worldwide

Wolfsburg, 28 April 2008 - Volkswagen will increase the number of apprentices at its sites worldwide to more than 10,000 by 2010. This was announced by the Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft Board of Management member for Human Resources, Dr. Horst Neumann, during an international conference organized by IG Metall in Wolfsburg on Monday. He stressed that “globalization needs an outstanding team. That is why Volkswagen is encouraging the competence, commitment and fitness of its workforce worldwide.”

The apprenticeship initiative will raise the competence of employees further. To this end, cross-border standards for vocational training will be introduced at Volkswagen. Furthermore, the company is investigating the possibility of integrating further sites in vocational training schemes. According to Dr. Neumann: “The next step is for Volkswagen to increase the number of apprentices worldwide to more than 10,000. We need the best people on board, so we must set about intensifying their training.” Volkswagen currently trains 7,748 young people at Group companies in Germany and a further 1,861 at its international locations. Volkswagen has also already made an extensive commitment to vocational training at its German plants under collective agreement provisions, and the apprenticeship initiative announced today will concentrate on international sites.

This year alone, the company will be recruiting 5,500 young talents worldwide: some 2,650 university graduates and 2,850 young people trained by the company itself. Moreover, a further 3,000 employees with professional experience will also be recruited. There are career opportunities in the Group for engineering specialists, mechanical engineers and electrical engineers as well as designers and business economists.

“Being part of an outstanding team also involves the intensive participation of the workforce in the Volkswagen Way, in other words in the continuous improvement of the entire way work is organized, from the individual workplace to the company as a whole,” Dr. Neumann said. The participation of labor representatives anchored in the Volkswagen International Charter in the form of co-determination and various rights regarding hearing, consultation and information procedures encourages competence and commitment.

Professor Gesine Schwan, Coordinator of German-Polish Cooperation for the Federal Government and President of the Europe University Viadrina, also spoke to conference delegates. She attested to the Volkswagen Group’s exemplary commitment to social standards at its international sites: “If all global players were to act like Volkswagen, the globalization debate would have taken a different course over the last 15 years.”

Source: Volkswagen