Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 25, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
WDR increased the number of vocational training places under the Vocational Training Act (BBiG) for the third consecutive year last year. “It is good to know that, as one of the largest public employers, the state broadcasting corporation is thereby fulfilling its social responsibility in an exemplary manner. WDR enables many young people to enter working life and thus ensures successful integration into society,” said Broadcasting Council Chairman Reinhard Grätz.
As Head of Human Resources Karl Indlekofer reported, 215 young women and men learned a training occupation under BBiG at WDR in 2006. They were trained in 19 different occupations, including media designers, office-communications clerks, carpenters, painters, make-up artists, IT specialists and photo-media laboratory technicians. The number of trainees was thus again increased by more than ten percent. This is the result of a management decision made in 2004 to employ ten percent more trainees each year. In 2006, WDR, together with NDR, had the most trainees among the ARD broadcasting corporations.
At the same time, the broadcaster trained 38 young women and men as journalists in editorial traineeships. Of these, 18 were employed directly by WDR as programme trainees. A further 20 were guests at WDR as trainee interns from journalism degree courses at the universities of Dortmund and Leipzig. As Rainer Assion, head of the training editorial department, reported to the committee, all former WDR trainees were subsequently employed as editors on permanent or fixed-term contracts or as permanent freelancers. In his report, Assion highlighted the great commitment of the previous trainee year. The eight trainees, including five with migration biographies, had produced more than 50 contributions for radio, television and the Internet from Bosnia or Sarajevo in a journalistic final project marking the 15th anniversary of the outbreak of war. The contributions had been very well received in the programmes.
In addition to the journalistic traineeships, WDR also trained 57 young people in other traineeships and trainee programmes, including as graphic artists, costume designers, production designers and administrative and production specialists. In addition, WDR offered 1,145 young people, pupils and students the opportunity to sample various media professions in programme work-shadowing placements, internships and school internships.
