Youth get chance to train how to bring things up to speed
INDUSTRY NEWS
Porsche “has always been about more than just sales figures and turnover,” says Oliver Blume, chairman of the executive board of Porsche AG.
We would add fast, dynamic cars. He missed that out. But this time, Blume is not talking about fast cars, instead he is talking about giving something back.
Blume was in the country to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the company, the local Porsche distributors and an organisation called Don Bosco. No, it’s not a pizza restaurant, but rather a body founded more than 200 years ago to give those less fortunate a fighting chance.
“The Salesians of Don Bosco have been working for more than 200 years to give people a step out of poverty,” says Uwe Bothur of the Don Bosco Mondo organisation.
PARTNERSHIP
One way it has been doing this is through a partnership with Porsche in Manilla in the Philippines. More than 250 disadvantaged young people have received technical training and life skills and all have gone on to find a job in Porsche or in the wider Volkswagen Group.
Now Porsche and Don Bosco are bringing the same programme to SA as the Porsche Training and Recruitment Centre ZA. Starting in 2017, 25 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds will be selected every year and undergo 24 months of training at the Don Bosco facility in Cape Town to become Porsche technicians.
“The initiative combines entrepreneurial thinking and actions,” says Toby Venter, CEO of local Porsche agent LSM Distributors. “It is more important than ever to take action for the future. Sadly, too many people in SA do not complete training because they do not see the prospect of a job at the end of it,” Venter says.
JOB GUARANTEE
Unlike some apprenticeship schemes or even tertiary education, this programme does guarantee a job and while those behind the initiative say the main commitment is to keep graduates in SA, there are opportunities for those who might want to pursue their career overseas.
Porsche will be training staff and creating facilities at the Don Bosco premises and the companies will run the programme together until 2020 when it will be handed over to Don Bosco.
“It is a chance to stand up for those people who have been subjected to very difficult circumstances,” says Blume.
There are strict criteria for selection, but there will also be entry programmes to help people join the training scheme.
“Every person who has success needs to give something away from that success,” says Uwe Huck of Porsche AG, who is behind the international programme. “The young people of SA need support.”
The programme presents an exciting opportunity and will no doubt prove to be hugely popular. Who knows, perhaps one day we shall see a graduate shaping the future of Porsche.