We regularly visit universities to present RWE as an employer. The ‘Meet’n Speed Tour’ enables us to present our company and empowers the participating students to address their own personal challenges. We coached 126 selected students in different application situations at ten locations.

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The ‘RWE Bewerberakademie’ (RWE Applicant Academy) offers input for your personal and career development online and free of charge. Tips on making applications, competence tests, ebooks on specialist and management issues, and the online magazine ‘KarriereEnergie’ (Career Energy), which already has more than 2,000 subscribers, facilitate a multifaceted and interactive dialogue. School children can explore online the content of a wide range of different training vocations through interactive and career-oriented games.

More on the ‘Bewerberakademie’ (RWE Applicant Academy)

In 2012, we presented the ‘RWE Zukunftspreis’ (RWE Future Award) for the third time. This is an award for outstanding academic work in the context of developing renewable energies. A distinguished jury with representatives from academia and business will assess the applications received for the award, and the prize worth a total of 35,000 euros will be presented in 2013. Applications for the prize can be submitted up to April 2013.

More on the ‘RWE Zukunftspreis’ (RWE Future Award)

We present our Group as an attractive employer through the scholarship programme RWE Fellows. Since 2008, we have been awarding a monthly grant to a total of 32 undergraduate students and selected doctoral candidates each year. Around 25 % of the fellows join one of RWE’s Group companies once they have completed their studies and this is a clear indicator for the success of the programme.

Our Group subsidiary company VSE located in the Slovak Republic is also putting the scholarship programme into practice. Last year, the company provided support for eight fellows who have now all been given positions as trainees there. Our Hungarian company, the ELMŰ-ÉMÁSZ Group, is also committed to making contact with talented students at an early stage. The ELMŰ-ÉMÁSZ Academy is present at three universities and offers students the opportunity to have advanced training on issues relating to the energy industry. The project on Employer Branding was launched in 2011.

If possible, we would like to develop our future managers from our own pool of talented employees. We do this in a wide range of different programmes. For example, we have been able to recruit a total of 45 external trainee managers to our International Graduate Programme – our group-wide trainee programme for high-flying graduates – and develop their talents. 37 of these trainees are still working in the Group and six of them are managers.

The graduate programmes in Hungary have been successfully implemented for many years. In the year 2012, we accepted eight new participants in the programme. In previous years, we have taken on a total of eight participants as full-time employees.

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Experiences along the entire value chain, within networks and in cooperation across companies and over national borders are all becoming increasingly important. The participants in our Corporate Talent Programme have an opportunity to learn about career paths outside their individual companies and specialist areas in a job rotation programme.

The classic vocational-training route continues to be a high priority at RWE. At the end of 2012, a total of some 2,800 young people were being trained in more than 30 vocations at 60 RWE sites. In September 2012, around 800 new apprentices started their training at RWE. The percentage of female apprentices amounted to 23 %.

We have been training more apprentices than we actually require for many years. This involves us in shouldering our responsibility as an employer and offering young people a sound training in industrial, technical, commercial or other vocations with aim of giving them good prospects in the employment market. The fact that we train more people than we actually need for our own requirements constitutes part of our social commitment. We use our initiative ‘Ich pack’ das!’ (I can do this!) to give around 100 disadvantaged young people a second chance every year. These people spend one year doing a foundation course. Since 2004, RWE has invested a total of €10 million in the programme. 80 % of the trainees in 2012 obtained a vocational training contract. This is a very high success rate.

More on the RWE initiative ‘Ich pack‘ das!’ (I can do this!)

Career training and qualification are key factors for enhancing the employability and flexibility of our employees. We launched a new learning architecture for the RWE Group with ‘RWE Learning’ in the middle of 2012. This supports independent planning of career-training measures. The learning portal ‘RWE Learning’ was set up by the RWE Development Centre and there are initially versions in German and English, with translations into other languages currently at the planning stage. Personalised access gives employees an overview of all the training packages available in the RWE Group and they have their own personal ‘Learning Account’. This shows the training history of the employee and supports individuals and their line managers in planning and defining development targets. All career training packages run by the RWE Development Centre and the relevant RWE company can be booked here. ‘RWE Learning’ increases the transparency of career training in the RWE Group, integrates managers more intensively within the process of career training and also makes a contribution to ensuring that RWE and its workforce are fit for the future.