ThyssenKrupp Honored for Outstanding Corporate Citizenship
12/11/2008 - ThyssenKrupp AG wins a corporate citizenship award for its Ideas Park and its associated “Discovering future technology” initiative in this year’s “Freedom and Responsibility” initiative competition.
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ThyssenKrupp’s “Discovering future technology” initiative addresses the challenging issue of attracting young people to pursue technical occupations.
The initiative aims to promote dialogue on the subject of technology across all areas of society and all age groups while raising enthusiasm among young people for technical apprenticeships and engineering degree courses.
The initiative is an open platform offering some 120 partners from the worlds of science, society, business and the media the opportunity to combine their commitment to education and technology in joint projects.
The next Ideas park will take place 2011 in North Rhine-Westfalia. |
“For four years, the Group has been using the initiative to raise enthusiasm for technology, reaching out to more than half a million young people,” said Ludwig Georg Braun, President of the DIHK (German Chambers of Industry and Commerce). “This is an outstanding example of corporate citizenship aimed at addressing the shortage of young people in technical occupations.”
“In view of the current financial and economic crisis, we need such good examples of social commitment to help restore confidence in our social market economy,” said Otto Kentzler, President of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) at the ceremony in Berlin, which was held under the patronage of German President Horst Köhler.
ThyssenKrupp and the Ideas Park also was awarded the 2008 Politikaward, presented by the German trade journal “politik&kommmunikation” in recognition of outstanding work in the field of political communications. The Ideas Park—described by the judges as the “most coherent, effective and best communicated corporate citizenship concept”—won in the category “Corporate Social Responsibility,” which honors companies who demonstrate exemplary corporate citizenship and voluntarily integrate social and ecological concerns into their corporate actions.
“We are delighted to receive these two awards. They are both an endorsement and an incentive to maintain our commitment to technology and supporting young people,” said Jürgen Claassen, Head of Corporate Communications and Strategy and Executive Vice President of ThyssenKrupp AG.
ThyssenKrupp launched the “Discovering future technology” initiative in 2004, with the Ideas Park as one of its highlights. Previous Ideas Parks in Gelsenkirchen (2004), Hanover (2006), and Stuttgart (2008) have attracted well over half a million visitors. The initiative aims to promote dialogue on the subject of technology across all areas of society and all age groups and raise enthusiasm among young people for technical apprenticeships and engineering degree courses. The initiative does not pursue any commercial interests.
With sales of 53.4 billion euros and 199,374 employees in over 70 countries, ThyssenKrupp is one of the world's major technology groups and occupies excellent positions on the international markets. The three main business areas of steel, capital goods and services, organized in five segments—Steel, Stainless, Technologies, Elevator and Services—mark out the Group's areas of competence.
ThyssenKrupp launched the “Discovering future technology” initiative in 2004, with the Ideas Park as one of its highlights. Previous Ideas Parks in Gelsenkirchen (2004), Hanover (2006), and Stuttgart (2008) have attracted well over half a million visitors. The initiative aims to promote dialogue on the subject of technology across all areas of society and all age groups and raise enthusiasm among young people for technical apprenticeships and engineering degree courses. The initiative does not pursue any commercial interests.
With sales of 53.4 billion euros and 199,374 employees in over 70 countries, ThyssenKrupp is one of the world's major technology groups and occupies excellent positions on the international markets. The three main business areas of steel, capital goods and services, organized in five segments—Steel, Stainless, Technologies, Elevator and Services—mark out the Group's areas of competence.
