Best practice in vocational training

The very number of people undergoing vocational training at DACHSER clearly shows just how much importance the company attaches to the matter. In Germany alone, more than 800 young people are involved in schemes. This translates into a trainee ratio of over 10%. But of course, the figures are not the only thing that matters: quality is also decisive. Training schemes are not all the same, by any means. Every year, when DACHSER awards its special trainee prize, it becomes clear just how well the company’s trainees throughout Germany perform. To ensure that the trainees achieve the best results in their final tests, the company pursues an individual and highly sophisticated training policy, which is implemented in various ways by the branches.

In recruiting trainees and students, DACHSER draws increasingly on cooperation with schools, universities of applied sciences, and universities of cooperative education.

The Bad Salzuflen branch, for instance, is taking part in a cooperation project between businesses and schools. The aim is to sign a cooperation agreement with a regional grammar school. The branch offers internships, company visits, support with specialized school work and participation in applicant training sessions. In return, the pupils work on projects which are relevant to the branch’s operations and which the company passes on to the schools.

The Rheine branch maintains and promotes close contacts with vocational colleges by (among other things) sending staff to give talks in schools, providing pupils with information from a practical point of view.

Only the very best make the short list
In selecting trainees and students for courses at a university of cooperative education, many branches do not merely rely on an interview. They use a growing number of more exhaustive procedures and tests.

To take one example: the Überherrn branch organizes an all-day applicants’ day to help it select trainees. The school-leavers are tested both in personal interviews and in the assessment centre. They are required to solve a wide variety of tasks on their own or in groups, and are given the opportunity to demonstrate their subject competence and social skills.

Best practice in vocational training

Integration from day one onwards

All branches see it as important to get their trainees really interested in the company and to integrate them fully from the very start. That’s why virtually all DACHSER branches offer orientation events on the first day of the training programme.

The Dortmund branch, meanwhile, goes a step further. “Old” and “new” trainees do not only meet on the first day of the training programme: they meet earlier, in May. In other words, they have a chance to get to know each other over a cup of coffee before the training actually starts.

In Bad Salzuflen, first-year trainees act as “sponsors” for the new entrants even before the programme gets underway. And in Ichtershausen/Landsberg, trainees are integrated into the affairs of the branch via regular six-monthly meetings with the forwarding manager.

In Cologne, too, the trainees are engaged in all processes on a regular basis. This is designed to give them a clear idea of what the company’s services involve, e.g. by accompanying a delivery.

Best practice in vocational training

It’s creativity, independent thinking and active involvement that really matter

The trainees and students are not merely challenged – and supported – in their daily work, in the courses offered within the company, and in various training sessions. Clearly targeted tasks and projects also play a key part in the programme.

For example, from the second year onwards all trainees at the Neuss/Alsdorf branches are required to work on specific tasks within departments. These are practical in nature, and – depending on the department concerned – might require good geographical knowledge, or a strong command of English.

At Berlin/Schönefeld students are given additional internal projects to work on: in fact, these have already led to a redesigned concept for company training sessions.

The trainees can expect to come up against all kinds of challenges, both inside the company and outside. The trainee office staff in Hof, for example, take part with great success in the annual competition run by the DHV, the association of German retail and industrial employees.

In Kempten, a number of trainees demonstrated their creativity in portraying their training in photographs, taking part in a photo competition run by the BIBB (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training).

Exchange programmes broaden the horizons
To give trainees the opportunity to gain experience far away from their own branch, DACHSER also runs a varied series of exchange programmes.

In Langenhagen, trainees can take part in a 2-week trainee exchange with other branches. This year in Dortmund, a 14-day exchange with a key customer is being offered, the second time this has happened. And in Rheine, trainees are given the chance to exchange with a trainee working for one of DACHSER’s customers for three months, as part of a training cooperation scheme.

On an international level, too, there are no limits to the possibilities on offer. In the Air & Sea Logistics Germany division, a number of trainees have already spent part of their training programme in France, New York or Shanghai.

In addition to this, last year several trainees at the company’s Kempten head office received counterparts from a school in Spain as part of an exchange run through the vocational college, and showed them how DACHSER’s head office and IT headquarters work. This autumn, the German trainees will possibly pay a return visit to Spain.