Deutsche Telekom welcomes 4,000 new trainees

On September 1, 4,000 young people will start their vocational training with Deutsche Telekom. “We are happy to be able to offer qualified training to so many young adults, helping them to start their careers,” said Thomas Sattelberger, Chief Human Resources Officer at Deutsche Telekom AG. “At the same time, the huge interest in Deutsche Telekom as a training provider shows us that we are seen as an attractive employer.”



The 4,000 trainees were chosen from around 44,500 applicants. This once again makes Deutsche Telekom the largest training company in Germany this year. Since privatization in 1996, a total of around 41,100 young people (as of mid-2007) have trained with Deutsche Telekom. Its range of courses allows Deutsche Telekom to make an enormous contribution to maintain Germany’s position as a center of business long term. The new staff will be training in seven commercial vocations, four IT tracks and, at 39 vocational training centers across Germany, as electronics technicians for building and infrastructure installations. Furthermore, Deutsche Telekom is offering nationwide the dual study option of Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunications.



A total of 12,000 trainees are employed by Deutsche Telekom in Germany, which puts the Group’s trainee ratio at around 8 percent. Of these, 22 percent have chosen a career as an IT systems electronics technician, 18 percent will be trained as office communications administrators, and a further 16 percent see their future career as that of a retail sales assistant. Each year, 96 percent successfully complete their training. This illustrates the quality of Deutsche Telekom’s training, which is also certified by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK). Each year, Deutsche Telekom trainees are among the best in the trade both compared with other trainees tested by the Chamber and at a regional level. For the first time last year, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) honored the best trainees in Germany by profession. This included three trainees from Deutsche Telekom.



The prospects for permanent employment following training are also very good at the moment. In June, Deutsche Telekom agreed with ver.di to take on up to 4,150 trainees by the end of 2009. So far this year, over 1,000 have already been employed with unlimited contracts.



The 12 recognized vocational training areas can be broken down into four IT tracks, comprising IT systems electronics technician, IT systems sales assistant, and IT technician for system integration or application development. The seven commercial vocations cover office communications administrator, retail sales assistant, industrial business administrator, real estate administrator, dialog marketing administrator, office communications administrator with foreign language skills, and industrial business administrator with additional knowledge management skills, as well as a career as an electronics technician for building and infrastructure installations.