The largest training camp in the automotive industry

The most extensive qualification and advanced training campaign in the history of the Volkswagen Group is currently underway at the Zwickau location. Nearly the entire workforce there – 8,000 in total – is being made ready to build six electric models for three brands in the future: Volkswagen, Audi, Seat. That is the plan for the final construction stage starting in 2021. From that point onward, the Zwickau employees will ensure that up to 330,000 purely electric cars annually will roll off the assembly line.

Volkswagen gets down to business starting November 4th: that’s when mass production of the ID.31 will start – the next milestone in making the e-car accessible to millions of people. That makes Zwickau an essential part of the largest-scale electrification campaign in the automobile industry. In addition, Volkswagen is ensuring that their German factories and the jobs there remain viable in the future through the transformation to e-mobility.

The corporation is preparing the employees there for new production methods and jobs to reach that goal. The changes are coming about primarily because of the special characteristics of the e-car, the new vehicle architecture with the Modular Electrification Toolkit (MEB platform) and increasing automatization in the production process. Around 13,000 training days were planned for 2019 alone. That presumably makes Zwickau the automobile industry’s largest training campus.

– 60 employees will receive training to become specialists in electronics/electrical systems. Topics included in this (up to) 24-month training course are digital connectivity, product and process planning, data management, product and process programming, verification/assurance, error analysis, commissioning and product technology.

A 200-square-meter, high-voltage laboratory with electric training vehicles was set up specifically for the training courses. Digital instruction and VR goggles aid the employees in getting early, close-up training on the actual product and the actual production processes.

The advanced training campaign is being implemented together with the Volkswagen Training Institute. “Our goal is to make all employees as capable as possible of producing large numbers of e-cars in the highest quality,” says Holger Naduschewski, General Manager of the Volkswagen Training Institute in Zwickau. The trainers have been preparing themselves for this mammoth project over the long haul. The number of trainers has been increased, especially in the area of high-voltage technology. The training institute has also invested heavily in training technology and augmented reality. Naduschewski: “We are collaborating with around 90 training partners, depending on the training subject, in order to acquire the best experts as trainers. They are industry partners like Siemens and Kuka as well as prestigious educational institutions like the TU Chemnitz, the BA Glauchau and the Westsächsische Hochschule in Zwickau.” The challenges are enormous, as Naduschewski emphasizes: “We are giving instruction in a lot of diverse topics in a relatively short period of time, and all of that at the highest levels of training.”

The Zwickau workforce chose it for themselves by conducting an internal vote between the best ten of 250 suggestions. “Tradition meets future” got the most votes. The new slogan is a very apt embodiment of the relationship between more than 100 years of experience in building cars and expertise for the future automobile production here in Zwickau.

“We are trying not only to bring our whole workforce along with us through the training courses and change concept, but also to inspire them and make them passionate about new things,” says Hofbauer. “After all, it’s a tremendous opportunity for our Zwickau location to become a pioneer in e-mobility.”

The Zwickau plant is being converted to an e-plant at a total cost of 1.2 billion euros. Starting November 4th, the ID.31 will be manufactured as the world’s first serially-produced car based on the MEB. The ID. CROZZ2 will soon follow. At the end of 2020, only MEB electric cars will be made at Zwickau (six models for three brands) – up to 1,500 cars a day are planned.

Energy consumption

1 ID.3: The car is not available for sale yet.

2 ID. CROZZ: Near series concept car