The availability of specialized academic knowledge within the Volkswagen Group is assured by the AutoUni. Here, too, the educational offerings, which are developed in conjunction with the functional areas and cooperating universities, are built around the needs of the 
vocational groups. With its eight institutes, the AutoUni offers numerous lectures, conferences and recently also cooperative study modules at university level. One focus of the study modules in 2011 was in the area of electric traction. 159 employees advanced their training here. Programs at the AutoUni, which is based in Wolfsburg, have been rolled out internationally for several years. The International Financial Reporting Standards study module, for example, could be taken in both English and in German at the Chinese joint ventures in 2011.
Altogether nearly 12,700 participants attended 200 seminars organized by the AutoUni in the previous year. One-third of the courses were held outside of the main location in Wolfsburg and around 40% of the events were open to the public.
The AutoUni is also intensely involved in the Group’s doctoral student program. More than 400 doctoral students were supervised in 2011 at the various companies of the Volkswagen Group in Germany. Completed theses can be published as part of the AutoUni’s publication series.
There were significant developments in the area of university cooperation that is administered by the AutoUni. Volkswagen AG established a professorship in human resources at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in 2011.
In China, Tongji University in Shanghai and Volkswagen intensified their longtime cooperation. In addition to the two current professorships there, an additional professorship for Human Resource Management was established by Volkswagen at the Sino-German College for Graduate Study. Likewise supported by Volkswagen is the Dual Master Program, in which the Chinese university and the Technische Universität Braunschweig cooperate. Under this program, ten Chinese students per year earn a double master’s degree in Automotive Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the Shanghai and Braunschweig locations. The curriculum includes two internships that the students complete at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg. These measures raise the attractiveness of Volkswagen as an employer in China and contribute to meeting the human resource needs there. In 2011, 1,000 graduates from cooperating universities were selected and hired in China out of more than 70,000 applications.
