Social Panorama
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Daimler intends to offer the same high level of trainee-ships at the start of the 2008 training year this coming September. Although this figure is significantly greater than the Daimler Group’s current requirements, it makes allowances for future changes on the labor market in Germany. Daimler is thus already planning ahead with the aim of tailoring its trainee numbers to future demographics. Daimler’s future strategy on training will reflect more closely the medium- and long-term demand for traineeships and future employment perspectives for young employees, as well as forecasted numbers of graduates and the age structure of the workforce. Greater consideration will also be given to long-term requirements of the individual locations where traineeships are offered. Günther Fleig, Daimler Labor Relations Director and Board Member for Human Resources, said: “The labor market situation and demographic trends are forcing us to be more forward-looking in terms of our employment policy.” In September 2008, Daimler will be offering more than 1,600 traineeships in German plants and at Group headquarters in Untertürkheim. This means the number of traineeships will remain at the increased level that was on offer at the start of the 2006 training year. |
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Mercedes-Benz South Africa has extended its own highly successful HIV/AIDS job program to the company’s small and medium-sized suppliers in the region around Buffalo City. The move means that the program reaches roughly 6,700 employees of these companies, which together with family members amounts to a total of around 26,000 people. A further 50 companies are scheduled for inclusion in the program in 2008/09. The Siyakhana project, a public-private partnership, aims to cut the prevalence of HIV in the companies concerned and thus improve the circumstances of employees. This new phase of the project takes the fight against HIV/AIDS beyond the factory gates and into the community itself, promoting long-term economic stability in the region as a whole and also safeguarding production at the Mercedes-Benz plant in East London. |
The “School of Joy” is a private school in Palestine. It is attended by around 60 children and adolescents with learning difficulties or psychological disorders. Some of the students are orphans, others come from very impoverished backgrounds. The school itself is financed mainly by donations. Together with the German children’s charity “Die Sternsinger,” Daimler last year presented the school with a Mercedes-Benz Vito for use as a school bus. Since then, Daimler has also been involved in another project to help the young people in Beit Sahour. A training workshop teaching primarily vehicle-related trades has been set up in collaboration with GTZ, the German state-owned organization for technical cooperation. As of the end of last year, 15 students at the school are learning the ins and outs of modern vehicle mechanics in a training project supported by the Mercedes-Benz General Agency and local automobile workshops.
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At a ceremony in Mumbai in December 2007, the 2007 Mondialogo Engineering Awards were presented to the ten top project teams from 15 countries for their contribution to sustainable technical improvements in developing countries. Teams from around the world worked for six months to prepare their submissions for the awards, which are worth a total of 300,000 Euro in prize money. All in all, about 3,200 students from 89 countries were involved. Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Bharat Balasubramanian, Vice President, Group Research and Advanced Engineering, E/E, IT and Processes at Daimler, expressed admiration not only for the students’ creativity but also their commitment to solving social problems: “I’m really delighted to see that lots of very promising young engineers are not only working to further their own careers but also applying their knowledge and their ideas and, most of all, heeding their admirable social conscience in order to prepare for the challenges of the future and tackle the problems in the world’s poverty-stricken regions.” |
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In June 2007, the Blantyre Mechatronics Training Center for training automotive mechatronics specialists opened as a public-private partnership with GTZ, the German state-owned organization for technical cooperation. It is one of the first facilities in Africa to train mechanics in vehicle maintenance and repair in line with European standards. Blantyre will serve as a training location for the general agencies in Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, countries which all suffer from a chronic lack of qualified mechanics for vehicle repair. Providing training for people in such fields is therefore also crucial for the economic development of these countries. Daimler also intends to go one step further, with a long-term plan to establish a network of training centers in Africa, with the aim of providing better access to skilled vehicle maintenance and repairs in African countries and improving training standards in the region. |
Organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the annual GMF Forum is designed first and foremost to promote an exchange of ideas between leading figures in the worlds of business, politics, media, and science, from Europe and the U.S. Daimler has supported this initiative since it was launched in 2006. Participants discuss current political topics in the areas of economic and security policy, such as relations between the EU and Russia, the strained situation in the Balkans, and the planned eastward expansion of NATO. Other issues that have been on the agenda several times include the peace process in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. Daimler’s support for the German Marshall Fund underscores the Group’s contributions to good transatlantic relations. \
