BMW Debrecen Establishes “Factory Within a Factory”

TalentFactory has started operations as part of the BMW Group Plant Debrecen‘s (East-Hungary) dual vocational training program.

Hans-Peter Kemser, President and CEO of BMW Manufacturing Hungary, said that the program fits into the factory’s organizational structure, offering students the opportunity to support the plant’s production processes in a real industrial environment with the help of technologies and instructors.

A kind of “factory within a factory” has been established,

the CEO explained, where students, under the guidance of instructors and factory professionals, independently manufacture equipment, parts, and tools based on orders from various technological departments of the factory – products which will later appear in actual production. The TalentFactory, was inaugurated with a presentation of the first products made there: students built various transport devices and equipment suitable for moving body parts, all created on factory orders.

Students work in groups of 8 to 10 and learners from any year of the three-year dual vocational program can participate, according to the opening remarks. Currently, 200 students are involved, but that number may soon increase to 300, and it could grow by up to 100 students per year, said Hans-Peter Kemser. He emphasized that

one of the biggest advantages of the TalentFactory program is that students learn to use the latest technologies in a real production environment, and they aim to set an example for other companies operating in the city.

László Papp (Fidesz-KDNP), the mayor of Debrecen, said the city has been building its strategy on education for nearly 500 years, and that remains true today. In this, BMW serves as a major driving force, showcasing the high-level success of dual training.

The mayor announced that “a huge transformation is underway,” with internal combustion engines potentially being replaced by electric or other alternative solutions, and BMW has a good strategy for this. However, for the strategy to be successful, talented individuals are needed. He added that

it is crucial to find young talents year after year who will bring innovative ideas to success.

Zsolt Tirpák, chancellor of the Hungarian Vocational Training Center of Debrecen, added that in the past ten years, vocational training has been restructured on new foundations, with dual education and close cooperation with the economy playing a key role. He described it as symbolic that the first facility built when BMW’s Debrecen investment began was the training center, which now also houses the TalentFactory.

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