BSH training & education

Apprentice in the production line in Giengen, around 1965. (Source: BSH Corporate Archives)

Training, further education and employee development are among the most important forward-looking measures to be advocated by BSH. BSH HR Development at BSH invests in this area so that it can provide offerings of a consistently high level. As an attractive employer, BSH offers apprenticeships for a wide range of technical and commercial professions.

New homegrown talent

Robert Bosch GmbH and Siemens AG have practically been training their own new homegrown talent since their foundation. And even after BSH was established, training and education continued almost unchanged in the different operations. Apprentices are trained by BSH in technical, industrial and commercial professions at the individual sites – in close collaboration with the Bosch and Siemens parent companies. In the 1980s, BSH began training junior management staff in commercial professions completely independently. The first of these cohorts of industrial business managers successfully completed their training at BSH headquarters in 1984.

On completion of their training, the new junior staff were generally taken on. It was only during a brief period in the late 1970s that the company provided training over and beyond its own needs in a bid to tackle youth unemployment.

Girls' Day

As in the remainder of Germany, the technical and commercial apprenticeships at BSH remained an exclusively male domain for a long time. When two women among the 324 trainees commenced industrial training at BSH in the plant in Giengen in September 1979 for the first time, this was marked ceremoniously in the company magazine inform and by the production manager in Giengen.

In order to get more girls interested in technical professions, BSH began participating in the "Girls' Day" initiative in 2001, an annual event organized nationwide. The event provided girls from 5th to 10th grade with an insight into the development labs, workshops and technical departments at BSH.

Dual study

Since 1995, BSH has offered students the opportunity to start their professional career while simultaneously studying at a university and earning a bachelor's degree. Today there are around 20 exciting courses of study in the technical and commercial fields.

International training & education

The proven training concept based on the German dual-track approach was also adopted by BSH at its international sites. Junior management staff in China began receiving instruction at a purpose-built training workshop and vocational school in China in 1997, initially as part of the joint venture. The model was also adopted at the sites in Turkey in 2000. BSH joined forces with suppliers in 2007 to launch a program to train skilled workers in the Polish city of Lodz.

Training today

In the area of training, topics such as Industry 4.0 are now indispensable. This includes working with 3D printers, as well as the increasing networking of plants. Digitalisation also plays a major role. The modern training workshops are equipped with laptops and tablets, because tasks such as programming are part of the learning content. To meet changing requirements, virtual learning formats are also offered. BSH offers its trainees the opportunity to take part in international assignments during their training.