manufacturers (or OEMs) operating there. Graduates account for more than ten per cent of the employees at Volkswagen’s operations in Martin and Bratislava. Korean car maker KIA also employs graduates at its plant in Žilina: “We have 3,900 employees, with some seven per cent held by people who studied at universities or colleges,” explains spokesman Dusan Dvorák. While no current lack of people with college or university education is felt at another car maker in Slovakia – PSA – there are nevertheless several problems with these employees. “For one thing, many do not have a good command of spoken English,” concedes PSA spokeswoman Ivana Pavelková. Another problem is that graduates in this country have
are usually two types, one focusing on technical education and the other on teaching foreign languages, especially English but also German,” says director of SAP Antonín Sípek. Skoda, the dominant automobile manufacturer in the Czech Republic, even has its own college. The company has approximately 3,100 graduates that account for some 13% of all of its employees. More than 200 of them have actually finished
solely a theoretical knowledge of their future profession because the local educational system does not allow them to accept long-term fellowships at companies during their studies. In neighbouring Poland, a number of plants have opened up in the past decade, creating jobs for graduates and non- graduates alike. The workforce of Italian car- maker Fiat is approximately 11% former college or university students, according to spokesman Boguslaw Cieslar, who added that the respective trainee programmes involve both technical education and language classes. The same goes for German company Opel, where graduates actually account for some 17% of the total workforce.
the school, according to its rector Vladimír Hamácek. What is interesting to note
is that of the 107,130 people working for SAP members, at the end of 2010, the share of graduates in these figures was almost ten per cent. “In the coming years, we expect the number to increase and by, for instance, 2015, it could exceed 11%,” believes Sípek. In Slovakia there are
One of the graduates working at Volkswagen in Slovakia is 26-year-old Matej Basista who studied at Technical College in Kosice (in the eastern part of the country) and has now been with the company for 16 months. As part of the respective trainee programme
Automotive graduate training schemes in Slovakia
In Slovakia there are three OEMs for the automotive industry, all of which provide training schemes for graduates. “We organise a trainee programme for people who have a college or university education every year,” confirms Vladimír Machalík, Volkswagen spokesman in
Developments in EVs in the Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, an electric vehicle is being developed by Skoda, one of the three OEMs in this Central European country which have passenger cars in their production portfolio.
According to Antonín Sípek, director of the Czech Automotive Industry
Useful links
The Czech Republic’s Automotive Industry Association (SAP)
Skoda
Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic