Since 2003, ContiTech's "Integration into Working Life” model has been addressing young people denied access to the working world due to a lack of the necessary qualifications for doing a traineeship or poor scholastic achievement. The goal is to introduce young adults to the working world.

In the first year of participation in the project, the young people are integrated into different areas at the company, where they work with a mentor at their side. Apart from learning specific technical skills, they also become acquainted with the social structure of day-to-day life at the company and gradually learn to assume responsibility. Work at the company is supplemented by a day at school each week for development of their cognitive skills. Upon completion of the year, the participants have the possibility of moving on to a professional traineeship at Continental. Where the integration into working life at the company was successful but the participant lacks the scholastic qualifications, regular employment in production is offered.  In the last six years we have been able to integrate around sixty young people into the working world and assign them to traineeship slots.

A similar project was started in the spring of 2010 at the ContiTech plant in Waltershausen, Germany. In this project, we give young people the opportunity to gather experience in a company by participating in a long-term internship in various areas and afterwards to start a vocational traineeship. Both sides profit from the move. The young people learn about the company and we, as a company, can recognize the strengths and weaknesses of the future trainees so that we can foster their strengths and help them with their weaknesses, for instance with specific training measures.

The first participant started in the program in March 2010. Thanks to her independent method of working, she was integrated quickly in her area, thus creating a training position for herself. She started a three-year training as a process technician for rubber and plastics already in August 2010.

The “Integration into Working Life” model is an integral part of human resources policy at ContiTech. In 2006 it was awarded the "German Advancement Award for Youth Employment” sponsored by the state of Lower Saxony and the federal government.