Christian Reich, purchasing manager for Processes and Systems with Volkswagen Mexico addresses the attendees of the launch of the Volkswagen Beschaffungsakademie on Thursday.
Volkswagen Group of America Chattanooga Operations, LLC held an establishment ceremony Thursday for the Volkswagen Beschaffungsakademie (purchasing academy), a training program that will ensure that each employee in the purchasing department has the skills and experience needed to address the challenge of sourcing the parts for both the current model Passat and the new midsize SUV coming in 2016, said officials.
The academy program will develop competency profiles for each position and employees will be able to identify for themselves areas of expertise they wish to develop. This will then allow a tailor-made training plan for each employee to be developed in partnership with their manager, said officials.
“The purchasing academy aims to provide the skills and expertise needed for our team members to be successful and embrace their careers,” said Sebastian Patta, EVP for Human Resources at Volkswagen Chattanooga. “A career is not a job; a career is a calling, a passion, engagement at work and pride in one’s own performance."
The Chattanooga program is working in conjunction with the program in Puebla, Mexico as these two plants build cars for the same region and share many of the same parts suppliers.
Christian Reich, purchasing manager for Processes and Systems with Volkswagen Mexico also spoke at the ceremony. He emphasized that the program was more of a journey than a destination and detailed how the Puebla plant had implemented best practices in procurement that take advantage of the most valuable asset: employee knowledge and skills.
Chattanooga’s Beschaffungsakademie will join purchasing academies in the Volkswagen system that began with Germany in 2009, China in 2011, Mexico in 2012, and Russia in 2013.
Professor Michael Owens, assistant dean of Graduate Programs at UTC and
Sue Culpepper, director of the College of Business Student Success Center, co-presented on the subject “People Development and the Culture of Learning.”
Volkswagen offers various training programs to Volkswagen staff. These include the discussed Automation Mechatronics Program and Car Mechatronics Program, which are dual-system apprenticeships administered in conjunction with Chattanooga State, an evening MBA program coordinated with UTC, German language training, a LEAN Center and other programs.
Volkswagen recently announced an Engineering Specialist Training program, which targets candidates who have already earned their Bachelor’s degree. They would then receive a concentrated 18-month program that highlights the same hands-on experience of the mechatronics training coupled with three months of international experience at Volkswagen’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.