Volkswagen South Africa has taken another step toward addressing skills and employment needs in the region with the launch of its R400-million People for the Future programme.

The programme will touch VWSA employees, the company‘s immediate community in Uitenhage, its dealer network and engineering hopefuls.

The company said in a statement yesterday that it would make the investment between now and 2010.

“This ‘People for the Future’ investment is hopefully an indication of our determination to address the needs of technical skills and job creation in the motor and allied industries in South Africa,” said Andreas Tostmann, the company‘s outgoing MD.

“Our investment covers a range of initiatives that will be to the benefit of approximately 6 500 employees, 45 000 people in the national Volkswagen and Audi dealer networks and over 1 000 people in the local community.”

Internally, the company will be contributing to the further education of its employees through the Volkswagen Education and Training Institute. This is a business unit within the company, which is accredited by Merseta.

The institute provides training in four specialist areas, these being technical, manufacturing, leadership, and management and business skills development. It also includes corporate trainee and bursary programmes.

Training and development will also be extended to the VW and Audi dealer network, which Tostmann said would be done by way of non-technical and technical training.

Non-technical dealer training involves brand training, selling skills and product knowledge, as well as management and executive education training.

“Our technical dealer training initiatives include in-depth coverage of technical literature, and training on increasingly sophisticated new models and technical systems,” said Tostmann.

Another leg of the People for the Future programme included the Future Skills Project, which was in the advanced planning stage, the company said.

This aims to combat the national industry skills shortages by developing strategic partnerships with the labour department, the Merseta, the Volkswagen dealer network and training inistutions. “The goal is to develop 200 unemployed young people towards autotronics and motor mechanic qualifications over the next three years,” said Tostmann.

“The programme will entail the national recruitment of high-potential, unemployed youth and their enrolment in apprenticeships and learnerships, with theory provided at colleges, or ‘centres of excellence‘. Practical training will be provided at Volkswagen dealerships.”

Local community development will be driven through VW‘s Community Trust, which was established in 1989 to assist communities to play an active role in their own development.

The trust currently funds projects related to education, job creation and health.

Community development will also be driven through the Uitenhage Despatch Development Initiative, which VWSA was instrumental in establishing. One of the key UDDI job creation projects, the regional skills pool, was launched in 2003 with 934 school leavers completing training in basic workplace, mechanical, electrical and life skills.

The training is conducted on behalf of the UDDI by the Volkswagen Education and Training Institute.

UDDI-related projects have already resulted in the creation of over 3 000 new jobs in the Uitenhage area.