Pune, October 17, 2012: Volkswagen Group India has inaugurated the Volkswagen Group Academy located within the premises of Volkswagen’s Chakan plant in Pune. The inauguration was done by the chief minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, Fred Kappler, director Group (Genuine Parts and Service Division), Volkswagen AG, Dr John Chacko, Volkswagen Group chief representative India and president and MD, Volkswagen India, Gerry Dorizas, MD, Volkswagen Group Sales India and Dietmar Hildebrandt, director, Volkswagen Group Service India (pictured above).
The Volkswagen Group Academy has state-of-the-art facilities with an investment of 5.2 million euros (Rs 35.86 crore) and covers 5,500 square metres. The Academy provides technical and non-technical training solutions to Volkswagen Group Service Brands and its Channel Partners.
The Academy houses 10 fully functioning classrooms for theory sessions and six practice areas for the practical sessions for participants to get hands-on experience on Volkswagen Group products. The present setup of the Academy has scope of training over 5,000 participants every year from all over India for durations varying from 2 days to 10 days and can deliver up to 26,000 training man-days. It would offer training in many areas, like sales, aftersales, soft skills, IT, soft and behavioural aspects and mechatronics including other technical areas and also for events like regional qualification world challenge / skill contests and skill mapping. The next step would be planning body shop training as that will help increase dealer profitability and productivity.
In 2010, Volkswagen Group Educational Program (VG-TAP) was introduced. This program supports three polytechnics and seven technical institutes across India with Volkswagen’s latest training equipment and products providing education to students at the highest professional level. Through this programme, the Group is creating employable talent for the Indian automobile industry.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Academy, Dr John Chacko said: “This is a prerequisite for achieving higher growth of Volkswagen Group brands. Also, to meet the training demand of our brands for qualified manpower and to create ready pool industry professionals, we have conceptualised the Volkswagen Group Training Academy.”
Commenting on the occasion, Dietmar Hildebrandt (seen below interacting with a VG-TAP trainee) said, “The Volkswagen Group Academy is a platform for our dealership employees to harness their skills to meet our global standards. The Academy will offer various dealer training programmes targeted at offering various qualifications for sales consultants, service technicians, advisors, supervisors and internal staff. It will provide a platform for assessments, surveys, market research, skill competition and technical seminars. The
Academy also runs a unique Technical Apprentice Program (VG-TAP). This is to create quality talent pool for the automobile industry and also supplement recruitment at dealership level.”
The Volkswagen Academy will be the main hub for planning and executing the training programmes in India and will also act as monitoring centre of training planning and execution of the four Regional Training Academies present at Aurangabad, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Kolkata. The Academy will hold technical training programs of Volkswagen global standards and provide training on model launches and body shop, along with ‘Train the Trainer’ programs. The Training programmes will be designed and prepared at the Academy itself.