Volkswagen Group honors its best apprentices from all over the world

, ,

“Best Apprentice Award 2012” for 29 young talents from 13 countries Wolfsburg/Munich, 30 November 2012 – The Volkswagen Group today presented its “Best Apprentice Award 2012” to its top young achievers from all over the world. The award for excellence and professional competence during their vocational training was conferred on six women and 23 men…

  • “Best Apprentice Award 2012” for 29 young talents from 13 countries

Volkswagen Apprentices

Wolfsburg/Munich, 30 November 2012 – The Volkswagen Group today presented its “Best Apprentice Award 2012” to its top young achievers from all over the world. The award for excellence and professional competence during their vocational training was conferred on six women and 23 men and included apprentices from the new Group companies MAN and Porsche for the first time. A total of 29 young talents from 13 countries were honored.

The awards were presented by the Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, the Member of the Board of Management responsible for Human Resources, Dr. Horst Neumann, and the President of the Global Group Works Council, Bernd Osterloh. The ceremony took place at MAN in Munich on the occasion of a meeting of the Group Board of Management and the Global Group Works Council.

Prof. Winterkorn underscored: “We are delighted with the outstanding achievements of the young award winners. Great dedication and professional skill on the part of our employees are one of the factors behind the Volkswagen Group’s success. That is why we will continue to invest extensively in training and developing our young talent.”

Dr. Neumann emphasized: “Specialist knowledge and skills are an essential element of a top team. For that reason, the Volkswagen Group sets great store by first-class vocational training. We are thus investing in the future of the company while at the same time offering young people brilliant career perspectives.” The Group is currently training more than 15,000 young people worldwide.

Osterloh commented: “Our twin-track vocational training system gives young people an excellent foundation for a lifelong career. This success model is the envy of many. So it is good that Volkswagen is developing its vocational training further and rolling out this model worldwide. The apprentices we are honoring today are impressive confirmation of this approach.”

In recognition of their achievements the 29 award winners aged between 19 and 33 years were invited to Germany to participate in an exciting program spanning several days. This year’s “Best Apprentice Award” was the twelfth of its kind presented by the Volkswagen Group, and a total of 258 apprentices have been honored since 2001. The apprentices recognized in Munich demonstrated outstanding achievements and professional competence in many very different corporate divisions.

Christian Olbricht from Volkswagen in Osnabrück, for example, who is training both as a mechatronics technician and as an information systems technician, achieved excellent results in vocational competitions: He was the winner of “EuroSkills” and came fifth in “WorldSkills”. Nina Immermann, automotive mechatronics technician at Volkswagen in Emden, won the “ProMechaniker” competition organized by Volkswagen Motorsport and Volkswagen Coaching, thus qualifying for one of the coveted jobs in the pit lane at the Scirocco R-Cup, where she was responsible for putting the race cars on the track and servicing them. The award winners embark on special programs once they have returned home. Four will take part in the “Wanderjahre” (years abroad) program, which allows them to deepen their knowledge and skills at one of the Group’s 99 sites worldwide: These are the winner of the German apprentice machining technicians competition Alexander Baier from Augsburg, and the three mechatronics technicians Damian Machelski from Polkowice, Germo Gattow from Hanover and Marcin Osior from Poznań.

A further eight award winners will continue their training at university with the support of their respective companies: These are Jurian Bekema from the Netherlands (assembly technician), Audi scholarship holder Lars Bethäuser from Neckarsulm (automation technology), Jessica Klages from Brunswick (automation technology and energy systems), Daniel Röder from Salzgitter (electronics engineering), Filipe Calado Gomes from Brazil (automation technology), Michele Olivieri from Brunswick (business management), Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Paredes from Mexico and Urs Valentin Wetzel from Stuttgart (both mechatronics).

The award-winning apprentices are: Martin Ancsin (Volkswagen Slovakia, Bratislava, Slovakia), Stephanie Arnold (Audi, Ingolstadt), Alexander Baier (MAN Diesel & Turbo, Augsburg), Jurian Bekema (Scania Nederland, Zwolle, Netherlands), Lars Bethäuser (Audi, Neckarsulm), Ádám Borsodi (Audi Hungaria, Györ, Hungary), Junjie Chen (Shanghai-Volkswagen, Shanghai, China), Germo Gattow (Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Hanover), Marcus Gorvin (Bentley, Crewe, UK), Nina Immermann (Volkswagen, Emden), Oliver Jahn (Volkswagen Sachsen, Zwickau), Filipe Calado Gomes (Volkswagen do Brasil, São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil), Václav Kamínek (ŠKODA, Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic), Jessica Klages (Volkswagen, Brunswick), Heiko Knop (Volkswagen, Kassel), Angelina Leicht (Volkswagen, Wolfsburg), Fenglong Li (FAW-Volkswagen, Dalian, China), Damian Machelski (Volkswagen Motor Polska, Polkowice, Poland), Christian Olbricht (Volkswagen, Osnabrück), Michele Olivieri (Volkswagen Financial Services, Brunswick), Thomas Olzem (Volkswagen, Wolfsburg), Marcin Osior (Volkswagen Poznań, Poland), Magdalene Pokbaas (Volkswagen of South Africa, Uitenhage, South Africa), Daniel Röder (Volkswagen, Salzgitter), Diogo Salgueiro (Volkswagen Autoeuropa, Setubal, Portugal), Selina Stocker (MAN Truck & Bus, Munich), Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Paredes (Volkswagen de México, Puebla, Mexico), Joaquín Villalba Miret (SEAT, Martorell, Spain) and Urs Valentin Wetzel (Porsche, Stuttgart).


Share :