Volkswagen Group India today inaugurated the Volkswagen Group Academy in the premises of Volkswagen Chakan Plant, Pune. The inauguration was done by Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Mr. Fred Kappler, Director Group Genuine Parts and Service Division, Volkswagen AG, Dr. John Chacko, Volkswagen Group Chief Representative India and President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited, Mr. Gerry Dorizas, Managing Director, Volkswagen Group Sales India Private Limited and Mr. Dietmar Hildebrandt, Director, Volkswagen Group Service India.
The Volkswagen Group Academy has state-of-art facilities with an investment of 5.2 million Euros and occupies 5500 sq. metres area. The Academy provides technical and non-technical training solutions to Volkswagen Group Service Brands and its Channel Partners. The Academy houses ten 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 5000 participants yearly from all over India for duration varying from 2 days to 10 days and can deliver up to 26,000 training man-days. It would offer training in many areas, just to mention a few – for Sales, Aftersales, Soft Skills, IT, Soft & Behavioural aspects, 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 a Body Shop training as that will help in increasing the dealer’s 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 latest training equipment and products providing education to students at the highest professional level. Through this program, the Group is creating employable talent for the Indian automobile industry.
Dr. John Chacko, Volkswagen Group Chief Representative India and President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited, said, “I would like to congratulate the Volkswagen Group Service for creating the Volkswagen Group Academy. 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, Mr. Dietmar Hildebrandt, Director Group Service, Volkswagen Group Sales India Private Limited, said, “Volkswagen Group Academy is a platform for our dealership employees to harness their skills to meet our global standards. We are happy to announce the inauguration of the Academy which will offer various dealer training programs targeted towards offering various qualifications for sales consultants, service technicians, advisors, supervisors and internal staff. The Academy will provide platform for assessments, surveys, market research, skill competition and technical seminar amongst others. 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.