In line with its commitment to fostering the talent and personal development of its employees, SEAT has launched the Industry 4.0 Academy training programme. This is a pilot smart factory training project for production line workers, which aims to provide operators with the skills to meet the new technological challenges they will face in their jobs in the future, through transformation and digital training. Furthermore, on successfully completing this training, they obtain a university extension certificate that enables them to add to their curriculum vitae.
Eighty workers are participating in the pilot programme, which was set up with the support of the Eurecat technology centre, through the specialised training service for professionals, Eurecat Academy, and the IL3 Lifelong Learning Institute of the University of Barcelona. The programme consists of five modules: Digital Factories, Manufacturing Technologies, Electric Mobility, Industrial Organisation and Soft Skills. After completing the first of the modules in May, students are currently taking the second one, which concludes at the end of July.
“Today we live and work in a constantly changing environment, and it’s essential to acquire new knowledge and skills to meet these challenges” says Laura Carnicero, head of Training at SEAT. “At SEAT we’ve been working for years to prepare our employees for the future. This project impacts on the competence of the people working in the production process, which is changing considerably, and will do so even more.”
Each of the five major areas of this course lasts three months, during which students spend an average of eight hours per week. The training is carried out outside working hours, and in order to make work and studies compatible, it consists of a 90% online format. The participating workers applied voluntarily and were selected from the 300 applicants who showed interest in the initiative in the first three hours. The selection criteria was based solely on motivation for this training and interest in lifelong learning.
Commitment to training
For years now, SEAT has been promoting an ambitious company-wide training programme to boost the professional growth of its more than 15,000 employees and prepare them for the future challenges facing the automotive industry. In 2019, SEAT invested 23 million euros in training, or an average of 1,526 euros per worker, and provided almost 355,000 hours of instruction to its workers.
The company structures its training programmes under the “Always Learning” umbrella, which brings together three types of instruction: skills needed to do the job at hand; training focused on the abilities that will be needed in the future; and a third group where workers are free to choose different training options according to their interests. With these programmes, SEAT reaffirms its commitment to employment and to training as a means of offering career development opportunities to all its employees.
Furthermore, SEAT has been committed to youth employment for more than 60 years through its Apprentice School. This centre offers vocational training based on the German Dual Training system, which lasts three years. The apprentices attend close to 5,000 hours of classes, twice the average of other schools, which combine theoretical training with practical learning at the school itself, as well as at the SEAT Martorell, SEAT Barcelona or SEAT Componentes plants, and they are remunerated from day one. These additional hours are dedicated precisely to training in future knowledge, such as those related to programming or the Smart Factory, among others. Moreover, these studies offer them a double official qualification, both Spanish and German. Those who successfully complete this training programme are directly hired to work for the company with an open-ended contract.
SOURCE: SEAT
