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Daimler 360 GRAD - FAKTEN zur Nachhaltigkeit 2008
Daimler Nachhaltigkeitsbericht 2008 / Customers and society / Social commitment / Automotive Academy*
Automotive Academy*
Development assistance through training
Training skilled workers, offering young individuals solid prospects for the future, and contributing to social
stability: The Daimler Automotive Academy Network is a global association of training centers that make
available our core expertise in automobile production, thus making a valuable contribution to assisting local
youth and providing support to underdeveloped regions.
The idea for the network originated in 1999, and the first training center was opened in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia.
Today, the network has accredited centers in Kabul (Afghanistan), Perm (Russia), and Kuwait, as well as more
recently established centers in Hoedspruit (South Africa) and Beit Sahour (Palestine), both of which opened in
2007. All facilities are organized as public-private partnerships, which means financing from local governments
supplements our own investment. The training centers offer courses in automotive repair, mechatronics,
electronic systems, management, and marketing, some of which are combined with theoretical and practical
internships in Stuttgart. Students also have the possibility to pursue a Master’s degree. Curricula are tailored to
the conditions of each country, and the program’s conceptual design focuses on ensuring that academy
graduates are able to go to work immediately, and that the facilities themselves can operate on their own after
an initial period of approximately three years.
German Automotive Academy Afghanistan "Gottlieb Daimler"*
A key means of rebuilding Afghanistan is to support, qualify and train young people in the region. In a project
initiated in cooperation with Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) and the Arbeitsgruppe
für Entwicklung und Fachkräfte (AGEF), Daimler has already finished training more than 50 mechanics and
technicians in Afghanistan.
In each training course, 16 young people receive nine months of basic instruction that provides them with strong
theoretical and practical knowledge of general motor vehicle technology. All of the participants receive
apprenticeship pay during training. To enable the trainees to support their families, this pay corresponds to what
a skilled worker would earn in Afghanistan. After successfully completing the theoretical part of their training,
each participant also receives a Daimler overall that he or she wears when working on the vehicles during the
subsequent phase of practical training. In addition, Daimler provides AGEF with a Mercedes-Benz-Vito that is
used to transport the participants to the training sessions.
After the participants have successfully completed their training, the focus is on getting them jobs. For example,
they often find a job at local repair shops or at international organizations because the types of vehicles used
during practical training are generally the same as those operated by such potential employers. The employees
can therefore immediately begin working without requiring any further instruction. The Academy's first graduates
all found jobs immediately after completing their training.
* Content on this page is available exclusively on the Internet.