GROHE Demonstrates Corporate Social Responsibility Through Award-Winning Apprenticeship Programmes in Germany and Professional Skills Training as a Means of Helping People to Help Themselves

Another GROHE apprentice named in nationwide top-of-the-year ranking of the country’s best apprentices while GROHE continues to support professional skills training for severely impoverished youths in emerging countries

New Delhi, Dec 18, 2014:The provision of professional skills training remains a top priority at GROHE. The faucet manufacturer’s commitment to skills training benefits not only its apprentices in Germany but also makes a great difference toeconomically and socially disadvantaged youths in emerging countries. While GROHE continues to build and develop skills at its own factories and offices, the company also invests in training programmes in India and the Philippines where youths from impoverished backgrounds are offered an opportunity to make a better life for themselves.

GROHE training in Germany

Quality and success are the basis of serious professional training. This principle has held true for many years at GROHE. Thanks to high-quality training received at GROHE, as well as his own will to succeed, another apprentice has managed to finish among the top graduates nationwide. Having completed the metal grinding training programme at GROHE, 25-year-old Jürgen Deisner was one of 200 ‘super apprentices’ to receive an award in front of some 1,000 guests attending the national honours event in Berlin on December 8.

GROHE has an excellent track record in running apprenticeship programmes. Since 2007, no fewer than four GROHE apprentices trained at the Hemer and Lahr factories made it onto the list of the nationwide honours. In addition, the Hemer plant placed two names on the statewide list of the best graduates, namely the aforementioned Jürgen Deisner as well as fellow metal grinder Mark Buscholl, also 25 years old. A total of sevenGROHE apprentices have featured among the best graduates in the state during the past five years.

“Professional training plays a decisive role for a person’s entire career,” says Michael Mager, member of the Management Board at Grohe AG. “This is why we are committed to opening up the very best opportunities for our apprentices and trainees. At this early stage of their working lives, we want to equip them with excellent skills to master their future tasks and ensure that they enjoy their work and the success they achieve.”

To ensure that this goal is met, GROHE sets great store by maintaining the best possible ratio between the number of trainees and apprentices on the one hand and the number of full-time and part-time trainers and instructors on the other. The company’s standard apprenticeship programmes are supplemented by special schemes such as the marketing and sales oriented “Azubi on Tour” internship initiative, which enables trainees to look beyond the boundaries of their course and to develop skills in other disciplines as well. At present GROHE is training a total of 85 apprentices in 16 different apprenticeship and traineeship programmes, some of which are integrated with part-time university courses.

Professional training programme extended to the Philippines

GROHE’s commitment to training young people is not confined to the company alone. Back in 2009 GROHE launched an important skills training effort in Mumbai, India where the company teamed up with Don Bosco Mondo e.V. to set up the GROHE JAL Academy. Attached to the local Don Bosco Learning Center, this training facility for plumbers gives youths from extremely impoverished backgrounds the opportunity to become skilled craftsmen capable of earning decent livelihoods. The training programme is also designed to prepare graduates for compliance with international standards, which is increasingly required in India as well. In 2015, GROHE will not only continue to run this popular and award-winning project but will also roll it out to New Dehli.

In addition, GROHE and Don Bosco are cooperating on a project in Manila-Tondo in the Philippines where they are setting up a training workshop under the name GROHE Dual Tech TVET (Technical Vocational Education and Training). Manila-Tondo’s claim to fame is based on the sad fact that it is an impoverished region and the world’s most densely populated place on earth, with more than 630,000 people crammed into an area of only roughly 5.64 square kilometres. Locals suffer from lack of drinking water, housing, sanitary facilities, educational resources, healthcare and employment.

Michael Mager explains: “In conjunction with the Don Bosco Youth Center we want to enable youths to acquire the skills and qualifications they require to make a better life for themselves. They need opportunities to train and expand their talents and abilities in order to maximise their chances in the labour market with a view to earning their own livelihoods and actively contributing to their community.”

The Don Bosco Youth Center in Manila already offers training programmes across a range of different trades and professions, from mechanical and electrical engineering to accounting and housekeeping, from gastronomy to milling, wood-turning and welding. Ever since the training programmes were launched back in 1971, a total of 20,550 boys and girls have successfully graduated and benefited from the Center’s network of contacts with employers and its job placement activities.

Now GROHE and Don Bosco are launching the sanitary plumbing training programme. Starting in 2015, two classes comprising 25 trainees each will receive professional training to the official standards set by the Philippines government. The course will be integrated with local construction companies, with future trainers undergoing professional training to ensure they are prepared for their role as instructors. In addition to equipping the workshops with machines and furniture, GROHE will fund the required materials and wages.

GROHE believes that youths are entitled to education and should have access to training wherever they live in the world.
CCI Newswire