VW Board Member for Human Resources Dr. Neumann: Intensify training and support for young scientists on Chinese growth market

Shanghai / Wolfsburg, 22 June 2011 - Volkswagen and Tongji University in Shanghai are strengthening their long-standing cooperation and setting up an endowed chair for human resource management at the Sino-German College for Graduate Study. At the signing ceremony in Shanghai today, Dr. Horst Neumann, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft responsible for Human Resources, emphasized: “This professorship, already the third of its kind set up by Volkswagen at Tongji University’s College for Graduate Study, will support the training of the young scientists who are so urgently needed on the growing Chinese market. The new chair will focus chiefly on research into the retention and development of specialists and managers, and dual vocational training.”

Both Vice Directors of the Sino-German College for Graduate Study at Tongji University in Shanghai, Dr. Jari Grosse-Ruyken and Prof. Dr. Wu Zhihong, highlighted Volkswagen’s commitment to setting up the latest endowed professorship, commenting that the new chair will not only promote exchange between the academic world and industry, but will also advance research into areas of decisive relevance for the future such as personnel development and training. The first two endowed chairs set up by Volkswagen concentrate on research into products and technology. The College for Graduate Study opened in 1998 and now has 30 endowed chairs supported by over 20 international companies.

Cooperation between the Wolfsburg-based automaker and Tongji University is of a long-term nature. VW-Tongji Automotive Institute was founded back in 2000. Two years ago, the Institute’s cooperation partners signed an agreement to intensify collaboration in engineering studies. In 2005, Volkswagen was the first automaker to launch an accident research project in China together with Tongji University. The "Volkswagen Education Foundation" was set up in 2007 and was commended by the Chinese Ministry of Education for its practice-oriented higher education program.