Stuttgart, January 24, 1995
A project as yet unique among German companies is now taking place in the Munich area. With the slogan "Daimler-Benz TRAINEE POWER - We get things going", some 70 trainees from virtually all group sites in the Munich area, as well as from Augsburg and Manching, are involved in a campaign promoting new, creative methods in vocational training. While still continuing their normal training, the commercial and technical apprentices from the various corporate units of the Daimler-Benz Group will be working voluntarily in teams on self-selected topics from the areas of economics, ecology, technology and social policy until autumn. One team, for example, from the Daimler-Benz office in Munich has chosen the theme of "Customer satisfaction", while a mixed Mercedes-Benz/AEG group is examining Mercedes-Benz's Success Program. Apprentices at Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) are looking at the issues of "Political awareness among young people" and "On-site conservation". Other teams are investigating the internationalization of vocational training and the integration of foreigners.As part of the nine-month long project, each group of trainees will be elaborating their own topic, i.e. developing a system, producing analyses, collating useful findings, as well as suggesting solutions. At the end of September '95, the results of the work of all the teams will be presented at a large final gathering in front of another 1,000 or so trainees of the Daimler-Benz Group, school pupils, and representatives from the media, politics and society at large.
One TRAINEE POWER team has special responsibility for the design and organization of this final event, which will consist of a mix of "stylish" individual-project presentation, music, dance and sketches. An essential aspect of the TRAINEE POWER project is that the young people work independently on their topics, researching, organizing and determining for themselves the way in which they will present the results of their work; the trainers being there to assist only if needed.
T-shirts and stickers bearing the smart TRAINEE POWER logo allow those taking part in the project to be recognized by their colleagues in their companies. The Daimler-Benz Group is also keen to show its gratitude to its trainees: in recognition of their involvement, all 70 of them are being invited this October to visit the various sites in North Germany where last year's TRAINEE POWER campaign took place.
With this project, Daimler-Benz aims to promote the creativity, independence and motivation of its junior staff. At the same time, it is hoped that the trainees will become more actively involved in shaping developments and organizing their work. Likewise the aim is to support the imparting of so-called "core skills" like team and project work, self-organization and initiative, presentation and communication. In fact, it is precisely the area of communication between young people, beyond the confines of the corporate units, that special significance is attached to in the TRAINEE POWER project, thus making a major contribution to group integration among the junior staff.
If the previous success of similar campaigns in other regions of Germany over the past few years is anything to go by, the project organizers at Daimler-Benz have done well in choosing Munich to host TRAINEE POWER '95. After all, the group, which with its corporate units of Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Mercedes-Benz, AEG Daimler-Benz Industrie and Daimler-Benz Interservices employs some 20,000 staff in the area of Munich alone, is an important economic factor in this region.
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© 1995 Daimler-Benz