An integral part of the DAS is the Daimler Training Portal (German abbreviation DAP), which serves as a work and communications platform for our instructors and trainees. As a standardized IT system, it is used for the administration, planning, and control of standardized training processes. We have been using the DAP throughout all of the Daimler AG plants since early 2010. Another current development is the Internet portal DAS@web, which we expect to launch in an initial set of pilot projects in 2012. The purpose of this portal is to enable our trainees to learn in a process that is not dependent on specific times or locations. It is supported by eLearning in combination with a process for monitoring learning performance and a communication platform.
The DAS is divided into the following steps: information, planning, decision-making, execution, monitoring, and evaluation. The trainees are given work assignments and key tasks for planning the individual steps of the assignments in a work schedule. Situation-based discussions with instructors help the trainees improve their decision-making skills and reflect on and optimize their actions and performance. The trainees work in projects or address real-life tasks, learn in small teams, and obtain information on their own. The DAS is continually evaluated; in an ongoing process, we adjust the system’s technology components to match current developments and requirements in the area of “green technologies.”

Training initiatives in India. We have achieved an initial set of educational policy milestones in India. For example, in the training center of Mercedes-Benz India Priv. Ltd. in Pune we introduced a training program for passenger car mechatronics specialists back in 2002. In the following years we joined forces with two state-supported vocational schools to expand this program into the Advanced Automotive Program. In the coming year we plan to expand this training program to include other schools in the northern and southern regions of the country and also to introduce a new training program for specialists in body and paint technology.

New forms of training for China. We are introducing an adapted instructional plan for future passenger car mechatronics specialists in pilot projects at five Chinese vocational schools. Our work in these projects is closely coordinated with training managers from the German automotive industry, representatives of the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Society for International Cooperation – GIZ), and China’s Ministry of Education. We have also added the professions of machining engineer and mechatronics specialist to the portfolio of jobs we offer in China. Through these initiatives we are responding to the continuing demand for specialists in the areas of aftersales and production.

Setting up a training system in Algeria. We are also supporting the introduction of a training program based on German models in Algeria as part of a strategic partnership between Daimler, Aarbar Investments, the Algerian government, and other German companies. The plans call for an initial training program for Algerian trainers, the establishment of modern training workshops, and the adaptation of German training plans to the Algerian educational system. The professional training program is expected to begin in 2013.

Talent meets the star: A vocational training campaign at Mercedes-Benz

Our “Talent meets the star” campaign aims to provide young people with a wide variety of opportunities for beginning their careers and at the same time get them enthusiastic about professional training programs at Mercedes-Benz plants, Mercedes-Benz sales and service outlets, and Mercedes-Benz Bank. To market our training programs, we employ all of the communication channels used by young people and their parents and teachers, as well as a wide spectrum of target group-oriented information media.

Daimler Student Partnership: A support program for college students

The Daimler Student Partnership (dsp) program plays a key role in recruiting and retaining young talent for Daimler on a long-term basis. With currently about 100 active members, the multi-location support program is geared toward outstanding college students majoring in engineering or business who would like to join the Daimler Group. Through our development partnership, we support the program’s participants, care for each student personally, and give students individual assistance. In this way, we help them to plan their careers and prepare them for an entry-level position at Daimler.

CAReer – The Talent Program: A trainee program for college graduates

Through CAReer – The Talent Program, a program for talented young people which we founded in 2007, we have already enabled approximately 2,000 college graduates and young people with initial work experience to receive top-class entry-level positions to kick off their careers. At the same time, the company can recruit highly qualified young people, who gain in-depth knowledge of a variety of areas during their participation in the program. The employees can subsequently contribute this knowledge to the departments at which they work. With its customized schedule, CAReer optimally prepares participants for their areas of work and provides them with a wide range of development opportunities.

Cooperative State University: Alternating between theory and practice

Besides direct recruitment and our CAReer trainee program, another means of gaining young college graduates for our company is the Cooperative State University in Germany. This route is particularly promising in the case of key functions, specialist positions for highly skilled personnel, and positions with management tasks. The program at the Cooperative State University offers students good opportunities to be hired for an interesting entry-level position in our company after a relatively short period of study and preparation. By the time they complete this program, the students have gotten to know the most important functional units at Daimler and a number of the Group’s locations in Germany and abroad. They are familiar with the work done within the company and can start their professional careers at Daimler without needing a long settling-in period. Our partner for teaching the required theoretical knowledge is the Cooperative State University in Baden-Württemberg.

Daimler Academic Programs: Supporting outstanding employees

Through the Daimler Academic Programs we support our employees who want advanced professional training and thus invest in our own human resources with a view to the future. Daimler Academic Programs are a further component of our all-round preparation activities for top-performing employees who will take on skilled professional positions and initial managerial responsibilities. They enable outstanding employees to earn bachelor’s or master’s degrees either by studying full-time or while working. The first employees to be supported in this manner began their studies in the winter semester of 2010.

FacTS: A support program for young workers

With our new support program called Facharbeiter Talent Schmiede (Talent Factory for Skilled Workers – FacTS) we are also investing in human resources we already have, with an eye on the future. Young people who have completed our vocational training program with outstanding grades will be provided with career development assistance in their initial years at the company. The pilot program will start in 2012.

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• Specialized and interdisciplinary qualification programs
  We develop the professional and personal skills of our employees in line with our processes for production development and support. This development is divided into seven theme areas: vehicle development, production, sales and customer services, managers and specialized employees, lean management, and compliance. These areas of human resources and qualification are networked via the Corporate Qualification Council:
  • Vehicle development: Companies can acquire and maintain technological leadership only if they constantly upgrade the skills of their research and development employees. Our Research & Development Technology Academy aims to constantly keep our employees’ skills up to date and enhance their expertise. Of special importance in this regard are skills management and the qualification of employees in line with the Daimler Green Strategy.
    
    At its Experts Campus, the R&D Technology Academy also offers a platform for addressing complex issues. The platform allows expert employees and managers to learn from one another and from scientists and businesspeople from outside Daimler who come to speak at the academy.
  • Production: The local qualification units at the production plants are responsible for the production-related qualification of skilled specialists and the qualification of managers at the level of master craftsmen.
    
    Master craftsmen play a key role in the production units. They plan and control the production processes and coordinate the employees’ work schedules. Training employees to become master craftsmen is therefore a key part of our qualification programs, especially since the position of master craftsman is also an important pillar of our leadership system. For example, at our new production facility in Hungary this qualification program is an important factor in the success of a comprehensive HR development concept aimed at the establishment of a long-term management culture.
  • Sales and customer services. Global Training is a worldwide training services provider that safeguards and enhances the expertise of the employees in Mercedes-Benz’ global sales organization. In order to provide all employees – including those from the external auto dealers’ organization – with current know-how quickly and simultaneously, training concepts are developed centrally in close cooperation with the research and development units, the business units, and the markets. These concepts are made available in seven languages in all the countries in which Daimler operates. In a network consisting of 200 training locations in 122 markets all over the world, 750 trainers teach qualification courses to more than 150,000 participants every year.
  • Managers and skilled workers. At the Daimler Corporate Academy (DCA) we have combined our courses for individual qualification in three areas:
    • Manager qualification,
    • Qualification in special skills for the Finance, Procurement, HR, and IT departments
    • Interdisciplinary qualification
    This consolidation ensures that all of our employees around the world receive training backed by an efficient learning architecture in accordance with uniform Daimler standards. Our global structure ensures that we can react quickly to division-specific as well as regional needs for programs dealing with specific topics. For example, in 2011 we expanded our qualification programs for leadership and the skilled professions, especially in the growth market of China.
    
    In the year under review, we also further increased the number of people taking our qualification courses. For example, about 3,150 managers from more than 60 locations took part in management qualification courses in 2011. We held courses for around 15,300 employees who were interested in acquiring specialist skills. Approximately 1,400 interdisciplinary qualification events in Germany attracted more than 10,400 participants. And in 2011 we integrated the topics of ethics and compliance as fixed components of our range of qualification courses.

  Manager qualification programs

  The qualification of managers is a fundamental aspect of personnel development. Every year the DCA offers an integrated overall program in this area for the Group. Regardless of their location, all of our managers can participate in training programs with identical content and quality, whereby the programs are offered in local languages in many countries.

  For example, the roughly 700 managers promoted to Level 4 positions each year all over the world participate in the same standardized program to prepare them for their new roles. At the Division Days, we take into account regional conditions and themes specific to individual business units, such as diversity, corporate values, ethics, and compliance.

  As a member of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI), the DCA also plays an active role in further developing requirements and learning concepts that will increase the sense of global responsibility for sustainable operations among the next generation of leaders. Our application of this approach in our Daimler leadership programs helps us shape the future development of executives at the company. [Further information on GRLI: www.grli.org]

  “100 percent of our managers worldwide and 100 percent of our technical and administrative employees in Germany who are subject to collective bargaining agreements regularly receive a performance assessment and a personal development planning session.”

  Personal development coaching

  We are increasingly offering personal coaching to supplement other measures for the personal development of our managers. We have therefore created a pool of internal and external coaches who are registered on the basis of a standardized quality check. As a result, suitable coaches are quickly available. The pool also ensures a uniform level of quality and increases the transparency of contract conditions.

  Specialist training worldwide

  The aim of specialist qualification training is to maintain the expertise and professionalism of the Group’s managers and employees. This is done through instruction regarding the methods, systems, and processes specific to their respective areas of specialization. In this way we support the sustainable and worldwide application of standards and guidelines in the different specialist departments. The training courses address not only the Group’s requirements but also regional issues. The latter are incorporated into customized qualification measures that are appropriate to the intercultural context.

  We constantly adjust our professional qualification programs to match the strategic training requirements of the various areas of specialization. We do this for specific target groups on the basis of employee skills profiles. In 2012 we will continue to make the program increasingly international by training more employees in Japan, China, and the U.S. to deal with financial, purchasing, human resources, and IT issues. In this process we will also rely on the targeted further development of distance learning formats.

  Lean management. Lean management is a method of improving the quality of production and administration processes that incorporates all employees. It involves the creation of lean structures, the avoidance of waste, and the establishment of a continuous improvement process. In the meantime, we have introduced lean management in all product areas and all of their supporting processes, with the support of the qualification units of our divisions and production plants. For example, we have installed a “learning factory” of the Mercedes-Benz Production System (MPS) at our new plant in Hungary. In this laboratory setting, the plant’s employees are being qualified to apply the principles of lean management and use its methods and tools.

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