05/20/2010 Continental Cited for International Internship Program

Continental has once again been cited for its international “Global Engineering Internship Program” [GEIP] in conjunction with the “Global Engineering Excellence” [GEE] project conducted at select universities. The SACHEN MACHEN (English: “Doing Something“) initiative sponsored by VDI (Association of German Engineers) singled out the ambitious project in Düsseldorf, awarding it the Best Practice Award 2010 in the “Getting the Up-and-Coming Generation Fired UP” category. Previous to this, the National Society for Experiential Education [NSEE] in the US and the Georgia Institute of Technology there had also awarded Continental a prize for GEE.

“With its international program, Continental promotes global, networked thinking and action as key qualifications for prospective engineers. It does an exemplary job of upping the quality of the German art of engineering,” underscored Dr. Willi Fuchs, director of VDI and spokesman for “SACHEN MACHEN”.

 “For us, the GEE study pointed up the need to involve science, business and politics in internationalizing the whole field of engineering. Increasing globalization boosts the demand for engineers with internationally oriented competencies. With GEIP, we as a corporation can make a significant contribution to a more job-oriented curriculum. The fact that our commitment has now received a second international prize tells us that we are on the right track,” said Sehnaz Özden, head of Corporate Employer Branding & Recruiting at the Continental Corporation.

In September 2008 the NSEE had already awarded Continental the 2008 NSEE Corporate Leader of the Year Award, citing GEIP as an example of outstanding commitment to intercultural work.

This was followed, in March 2009, by conferral of the "Work Abroad Employer of the Year" award by the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

In 2005 Continental was able to win over eight renowned universities for its GEE initiative, which studies the perspectives and social status of engineers as well as their education and their impact on the performance capability of national economies and draws conclusions from these findings. The resulting GEE study concluded that university curricula have to reflect developments in a globally networked economy. With GEIP Continental has started implementing the study’s recommendations.  In this internship program, select students at the GEIP universities worldwide can participate in a paid internship. So far 37 students from five countries have worked together with top-notch Continental employees, as well as with representatives of internationally focused projects in the global technology corporation’s GEIP project.

Annual GEE conference in Mexico

The annual GEE conference, held in January 2010, was hosted jointly by Continenal and Tech de Monterrey. The yearly conference is a meeting attended by representatives of the Global Engineering Excellence Initiative (GEE). This event brings together Conti representatives and universities to discuss about Global Engineering education.

The conference participants implemented an additional strategic focus for the next years besides the GEIP. The major goal is to develop and improve a platform between industry and leading engineering universities to strengthen education for engineers in the global businesses.

Industries and universities should work closer together to understand better the needs of industry and the trends to improve college education continuously. Students must also be involved in early stages in industry sponsored research projects on future trends and technologies. It is very important to offer students a platform to gain experience in industry early enough in their education, too. For Continental it is also important to have a platform to present the company to students and bind excellent and interested students.

All members agreed to initiate student projects together with university professors and Continental engineers. Very good students could be awarded for an international internship.

“For Continental it is very important to establish contact among the company engineers and GEE Universities, to improve engineering education and to use the network as a channel for talents”, says Sehnaz Özden, Global Head of Corporate Employer Branding and Recruiting of Continental.

All members of the conference agreed: The GEE initiative must be more than an internship program. This will strengthen the network between Continental and the universities.