Promoting young people and ensuring they have excellent training is a priority at KION Group: "Well-trained and motivated, highly qualified employees are essential to our sustained competitiveness," explains Anke Groth, personnel director and CFO at KION GROUP AG.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that 132 young people are going to be embarking on their career journeys with KION Group this year alone, with 107 new entrants spread across 16 technical and commercial apprenticeships and the remaining 25 across 11 bachelor degree and dual degree programs. KION Group, along with its brands – Linde, STILL and Dematic – as well as KION Group IT, employs nearly 600 apprentices and students on cooperative degree programs at nine locations in Germany.
"With our innovative products and growth areas, our company is a very attractive employer for young people,” says Groth, adding, "and we want to offer as many young people as possible solid prospects through qualified training; even in difficult times like now with the ongoing pandemic".
Setting the groundwork for the future
For 2020, 87 entrants have selected technical professions such as mechatronics technician or industrial mechanic while 20 are heading for commercial training in areas such as wholesale and export clerks or industrial clerks. Finally, 25 entry-level employees have opted for a dual-study program with most of them aiming for a Bachelor of Science degree in business information technology.
With the start of their trainings at the various KION Group companies in August or September, the new apprentices are drawing up their maps for their professional journeys. To make it easier for them to get started, KION Group IT, Linde and STILL are planning "Welcome Days" or orientation weeks for newcomers. With location tours, production hall tours, workplace rallies and team-building exercises, they begin building networks with their fellow trainees as well as with employees at their new company. Afterwards, everyone sets off in their respective specialist courses or departments. And intensive mentoring from their supervisors and seminars for individual and technical advanced training is thus ensured.
Lots of practical experience and future oriented
STILL in Hamburg is planning to hold a 1-week seminar, "Box office hits 2030", where trainees and students are to come up with enhancements to an existing product, such as a vehicle drive or something similar, and make it fit for the future. The junior employees plan the design as well as its financial development. "On the one hand, it is important for us to focus on our current products and to identify with our company as it is today, yet, it is also important for us to work together, to develop ideas for the future and to come up with concrete designs," explains Jan Wehlen, head of vocational training at STILL at its Hamburg headquarters. "Each group presents their future ideas to a jury consisting of managers and this way, they face critical questions about their own projects."
At Linde Material Handling, project-integrated learning is an integral part of the apprenticeship: In multi-disciplinary teams, trainees work on their own, improving processes and procedures within the company. Thus, they have an opportunity to experience methodical procedures and important social skills. Outstanding trainees are rewarded with an opportunity to spend four weeks at one of Linde MH's worldwide locations explains Christopher Klix, head of vocational training at Linde MH in Aschaffenburg, the Bavarian-based headquarters of the brand.
Of the 77 trainees who have just finished their training programs this year, 70 have been placed in full-time positions, which translates to a hiring rate of more than 90 percent.
