Volkswagen Group opens training academy in India

PUNE – Volkswagen has opened its training academy in Pune. The academy provides training for apprentices, employees and dealers from all group brands and production plants in India. The inauguration was attended by Lower Saxony’s Minister President David McAllister, who visited the new Volkswagen plant in Pune accompanied by a 50-member delegation. The Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, also welcomed Mukesh Malhotra, President of the regional Chamber of Commerce, to the inauguration. Prof. Winterkorn underscored: “The Volkswagen Group is seeking to become a top employer at all of its sites worldwide. We do not make a distinction between established home markets and emerging growth regions because the same applies everywhere: Top products can only be manufactured by a top team.” He added that Volkswagen was bringing first-class vocational training and professional development to the site with its jobs. “That strengthens the company, the employees and the region.” David McAllister emphasized: “Volkswagen is creating a livelihood for many Indian families and is not only investing in production halls and machinery, but – more importantly – also in people. Vocational training is one of the key challenges in India today, not only for the apprentices themselves, but also for continued economic development and for the country as a whole.” Mukesh Malhotra drew attention to the cooperation between the Volkswagen India Academy and the Polytechnical College in Pune and commented: “This is a pilot project for the whole of India in the field of training and vocational development in the automotive industry.” The Volkswagen India Academy, which has 1,500 square meters of space, is equipped with seminar rooms and provides practical training in advanced vehicle and production technologies. Apart from the professional development of employees, customer service personnel and the current 120 Group dealerships, the Academy is also the base for Volkswagen’s vocational training in India. The Group has developed transnational standards for vocational development in recent years that are oriented to the good record of the internationally recognized twin-track vocational training system in Germany. The Academy is located at the Pune plant which was opened in March 2009 to build group vehicles for the Indian market. Prior to the inauguration, the delegation toured the plant which is one of Volkswagen’s most modern factories and currently has a workforce of 2,200.