VW Saxony expands educational institute and aims to strengthen future topics

Volkswagen Sachsen has opened the new extension of its educational institute. After nearly three years of construction, the "Future e-Mobility Campus" now offers new training and further education formats for the automotive and supplier industry. With an annual capacity of up to 1,000 trainees and 8,000 course participants for further education, Volkswagen Bildungsinstitut GmbH is one of the largest and most significant educational providers for automotive manufacturing in Saxony.

"The Volkswagen Bildungsinstitut played a crucial role in Volkswagen's successful transition to electromobility with its training and further education initiative. With the expansion of the headquarters, we now offer even better opportunities for the Saxon automotive and supplier industry as well as for our employees within the company. For a world of work that is becoming increasingly digital and complex, we actively support the development of skilled workers," explained Prof. Thomas Edig, Managing Director of Human Resources & Organization at Volkswagen Sachsen.

Michael Kretschmer, Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony, promoted Saxony as an automotive region and called for strategic action for the transformation of the automotive industry. This also includes the expansion of the VW educational institute, creating the best conditions for innovative topics such as autonomous driving, charging technology, and sensors, said the CDU politician.

"A highly qualified workforce is the prerequisite for high-performance locations and strong products. With the extension building, we have now created a beacon in Saxony with the best conditions to optimally prepare our colleagues for the requirements of the working world of tomorrow," advocated Mandy Anding, Deputy Chairwoman of the Works Council at the Zwickau vehicle plant.

Future in Sight: Educational Institute Sets New Standards

With the spatial and professional expansion, the educational institute is responding to the increasing demand for qualifications in the future area of electromobility at Volkswagen. Approximately one-third of the annual orders come from suppliers and service providers and address the changing needs for training and further education. For example, since 2018, the training to become an automotive mechatronics technician has an additional focus on "system and high-voltage technology."

New topics include the control of vehicle functions via software interfaces and handling high-voltage systems. Previous fundamentals such as safety, comfort, and connectivity with conventional drive types are thus supplemented. Other future topics in vehicle technology, such as autonomous driving using the 5G mobile standard, are already well advanced and will be gradually integrated into training and further education.

Starting into E-Mobility: Knowledge Initiative with 20,000 Training Days

The corporation's electromobility initiative began in Saxony. With the ID.3, the first model of the Modular Electric Drive Kit rolled off the production line in Zwickau at the end of 2019. As the first site with large-scale production, Zwickau was converted from 100% combustion engines to 100% electromobility in just 26 months. In 2022, 218,000 electric cars were produced here. The educational institute accompanied and significantly drove the transformation with an extensive training program for the workforce.

Alone, 8,000 employees of the Zwickau plant were trained in the production of e-vehicles from 2018 to the end of 2020. 300 new training topics were taught for the Modular Electric Drive Kit (MEB), and a total of around 20,000 training days were offered. More than 3,500 employees acquired advanced skills in new technical product and manufacturing process topics. For this purpose, the educational institute set up high-voltage and training laboratories for automation technology, robotics, and IT in Zwickau to provide hands-on training on specialized topics.

More Than Three Decades of Experience: Volkswagen Educational Institute

The educational institute is a 100% subsidiary of Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH. As a competence center, it specializes in training, further education, personnel development, and organizational consulting for the automotive and supplier industry. Since its founding on December 14, 1990, the educational institute has continuously developed. The primary client is Volkswagen, but more than 100 other companies were also part of the customer base last year. The educational institute offers a total of 14 vocational training occupations, six dual study programs, and more than 200 further education courses. Qualification is provided not only in Germany but also in China, Mexico, India, the USA, Portugal, and Brazil—mostly at significant international corporate locations.

The 130 employees primarily work as trainers and pioneers of training and further education offerings. They are not only active at the three Saxon locations in Zwickau, Chemnitz, and Crossen but also on-site domestically and abroad. Since its founding, the educational institute has relied on collaboration with partners from the education sector and works with numerous renowned universities, higher education institutions, and vocational schools, as well as over 90 education partners across Germany, to continuously expand its portfolio.