More than 120 apprentices from all over Austria came together for the one-week apprenticeship initiative “young.stars academy” in Schladming in Styria. Bernd Labugger, Country Manager of DB Schenker in Austria and Martin Obermüller, Head of Human Resources at DB Schenker in Austria and Southeastern Europe, welcomed the logistics experts of tomorrow at the beginning of September and talked about their own careers.
“Apprentice training is particularly important for us and a basis for our future. Our goal is to successfully develop the company together with young people,” says Helmut Schweighofer, CEO of DB Schenker in Austria and Southeastern Europe. He adds: “For us, 2017 was a record year in the region, with sales of EUR 1.48 billion. That’s only possible because we focus on diversity; the right age mix is a big factor for success. “
A healthy generation and gender mix as well as a cultural balance among employees are of particular importance to DB Schenker. The result is a new look at things and new approaches to leadership.
Traditionally, DB Schenker has been one of the largest apprentice trainers in Austria. In total, DB Schenker trains a total of 120 apprentices in its own academy each year in the three professions of forwarding merchant, company logistics clerk and freight forwarding logistics specialist.
“Strengthening their personal abilities and expanding their social know-how make our apprentices, in addition to practice-oriented training, future top experts,” explains Martin Obermüller.
The program of the “young.stars academy” was developed by DB Schenker together with experienced experts and has a modular structure. In the first year of training, customer communication and the development of intercultural competences are in the foreground of the training. In the second year, the apprentices are mainly involved in conflict management and may try to simulate realistic business processes. The third year of training focuses on strengthening self-responsible thinking and acting as well as developing a personal success compass for apprentices.
DB Schenker is an international integrated logistics service provider with over 72,000 employees at 2,000 locations. Schenker & Co AG in Vienna is a Cluster Office for Southeastern Europe. There are currently around 7,000 employees at 80 locations in the 14 countries of this cluster.
