A team of five apprentices representing Thales in Germany have beaten 350 other teams to claim a prestigious national trophy. This victory further confirms the strength of Thales's apprenticeship programme in the country.

The competition, known as S.P.E.E.D.*, is a two-day management simulation game in which participants aim to create a successful virtual company. S.P.E.E.D. is organised by Bildungswerke der Wirtschaft, an industry association providing initiatives to help develop people and organisations in German industry.

The winning team was comprised of Martin Beyer, Jennifer Götz, Julia Heintel, Jens Kröner and Stefan Meißner, all part of an apprenticeship programme linking Thales with the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University. Reflecting the traditional apprenticeship system in Germany, these young Thales recruits share their time between office-based and college-based training, in this case with an important school of engineering.

Andreas Kaczmarek, a Human Resources Officer at Pforzheim where the winning team are based, prepared them for both the initial competition at state level and for the national finals in Dresden. Speaking after the event, he outlined the qualities that helped the team to victory. "The students applied entrepreneurial thinking and worked successfully as a team, even in difficult situations," said Kaczmarek. "They were thus able to experience and demonstrate what is important in the real world of business."
 
Thales is expanding its apprenticeship program in Germany this year and will offer 41 apprenticeship spaces throughout the country at its various sites, 18 of which will be in cooperation with Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University.


*S.P.E.E.D. is a German acronym which stands for "planning, decision making and competing successfully in a simulated environment"