Volkswagen is to train a new cohort of software developers on its Faculty 73 program. Applications close on September 22. The two-year program offers places for 100 trainees and will begin following the completion of selection tests on March 1, 2020. One hundred more participants will join the program on September 1, 2020. By that stage, a total of 300 trainees will have joined.
Human resources board member Gunnar Kilian, said, “Our experience with the first year has been very positive and shows that the program is a resounding success. We will therefore be continuing it very intensively.”
In the spring of 2019, Volkswagen started training new software developers to growing demand for more specialists. By the time the deadline for initial applications had expired, 1,500 applications had been received for the 100 places. Comprehensive tests were carried out before 100 women and men between the ages of 19 and 43 were finally selected.
“We have really hit the mark with Faculty 73. Training is proceeding very well and the first intermediate tests have significantly exceeded our expectations. This speaks for the participants and for our concept. The trainees are highly motivated and our departments are very interested in recruiting them. Volkswagen has shown that digitization cannot be accomplished only by investing in technologies. Digitization also means investing in people and skills,” commented Kilian.
Gerardo Scarpino, the Works Council coordinator, added, “This training is a key element in our digital transformation roadmap, which aims to prepare the company for major changes in the future, such as the transition to e-mobility and digitization. This is why it was important for us, as employee representatives, to ensure that the Faculty 73 program mainly targeted apprentices and colleagues from Volkswagen.”
The program was developed by the Volkswagen Group Academy. In its second year, Faculty 73 is again targeting apprentices with a basic IT knowledge as well as internal and external applicants with other appropriate initial qualifications. A degree is not required.
The first group of participants includes people who have completed vocational training with Volkswagen and have an affinity for IT and certain basic knowledge, as well as production and other employees with appropriate qualifications and motivation. The program is also open to people who have found that a degree course, for example in computer science, mathematics or physics, is not the right approach for them. This also applies to external candidates such as job-seekers with appropriate qualifications who have had no prospects of permanent employment to date as a result of their prior training history.
During the program, all participants receive basic training in line with their previous knowledge. This is followed by a further year of more advanced practically oriented training in programming. The scope of training is also oriented toward the requirements of the departments where participants will later work. The departments concerned and the participants get to know each other during several practically oriented training projects. Volkswagen pays participants the same salary as Volkswagen apprentices completing a dual course of studies. When the first participants complete the program in 2021, they are to be offered employment by Volkswagen.
Faculty 73 is managed by the AutoUni of the Volkswagen Group. Within the company, the advanced training department of the Volkswagen Group Academy, the human resources division, Group IT and other departments are also involved. Participants benefit from high-quality training as software developers with intensive coaching in programming. The training takes place at the AutoUni in Wolfsburg and in cooperation with partners – selected universities and private training providers.