Digital learning and online Q&A session with trainers

68 new trainees start their careers at Freudenberg

Jump into the future: 68 trainees start their careers at Freudenberg in Weinheim.

Weinheim, September 1, 2020. Virtual seminars, the first digital meeting to accompany the start of training and online fairs for applicants: over the past few months, the Freudenberg Group Training Center team has launched a range of digital services. Today, sixty-eight young people will begin their traineeships at the Weinheim site, where they will be trained for the labor market of the future with the aid of modern technologies. Thirty-seven of them will begin their training with the global technology group Freudenberg, and another thirty-one with affiliated companies. The trainees also include eighteen students from the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW). This year, for the first time, Freudenberg is offering a traineeship for a new career path: works firefighter. All told, one hundred and thirty young people in Germany will begin their training at Freudenberg today.

“We offer professional training in a modern learning environment, using high-tech machines in an international work setting,” said Dr. Rainer Kuntz, Head of the Training Center, in his welcome speech. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he explained, the Training Center had expanded its digital services. So now the new trainees receive a virtual welcome in the form of a Q&A session via live chat, a virtual tour of the facilities, and they have access to a dedicated homepage. In a video message Dr. Tilman Krauch, Member of the Board of Management and Freudenberg Group CTO, assured the trainees: “Even under coronavirus conditions, you’ll receive excellent training!” Hendrik Fichtner, CEO of the Service KG, and Bernd Egner from the Group Works Council also welcomed the new trainees.

Digital Q&A session and a tour of the Training Center
What does the Training Center look like from the inside? And who are the contact partners for trainees and students? To answer these and other questions, this June the first digital Welcome Meeting was held for the new trainees and students who will begin their vocational training today. Some sixty participants, including forty-five trainees and students, attended online. The starting point was an informative Welcome Homepage featuring videos, photos and information on various aspects of traineeships and the Training Center. According to Wilhelm Schüttler, Head of Technical Training: “It was a good exchange. We received a great deal of positive feedback.” In addition to a virtual tour and a digital Q&A session during the meeting, trainees and students could use the website to ask additional questions and get to know the respective contact partners in a live chat.

Online seminars and exam preparations
Thanks to the diverse digital services offered, the trainers, trainees and students successfully bridged the weeks following the total shutdown in March. Not only did the trainers provide seminars and workshops online, exam preparations also went digital: exercises were available for download, allowing students to discuss them at the next online session. Seminars originally intended for the classroom, such as English and IT courses, were also held digitally. The approach helped the new trainees to stay in touch and avoid disruption to their training. At Freudenberg, the application process for trainees has been digital for the past several years: applications are submitted online and the applicant test is also taken online.

Additional information for applicants
Freudenberg offers three of the ten most popular traineeship-based professions: electronics technician, mechatronics technician and industrial management assistant. What’s more, there are over twenty different training options: in addition to thirteen traineeship-based professions, there are nine dual degree programs in Business, Engineering and IT, all of which are jointly offered with the DHBW in Mannheim. Applications can be submitted at Freudenberg’s Training Homepage: www.ausbildung.freudenberg.com.