Highly diverse training programs

Highly diverse training programs

When offering advice or training we aim at fostering personal and professional growth within our teams. Our employees embrace this opportunity: This is why we have more than 20,000 training courses taken. Here’s a glimpse into a regular morning in our Academy.

Shortly before 9 am almost every morning, the foyer of the Rohde & Schwarz Academy in Munich is a busy place. Dozens of colleagues make their way here to attend training events. Some have to check the electronic display board to find their way, and others head straight to one of the eleven classrooms. Some of the rooms have desktop computers permanently installed or notebooks for software-based technical training. In others, the chairs are set up as learning islands for group work and activities involving extensive interaction. Everything has been prepared, the trainers are there and a new day of intensive training can begin.

This is a small insight in a big organization: 80% of all our employees complete one more training sessions within a year. Here are some fact and figures from 2019 regarding our global training:

Other opportunities

  • Certification, e.g. for software architects, software testers, scrum masters, scrum product owners, project managers; ITIL certification for IT and service
  • Meetups and collaborative learning: developer forums, clean code sessions, language classes
  • Online services, including access to external platforms with up-to-date content for software development, business methods and soft skills
  • Advice: individual development planning, coaching, part-time training programs

First hackathon at Rohde & Schwarz

Ivan Kostov also took part in the tailor-made training programs offered from the Rohde & Schwarz Academy. He first joined Rohde & Schwarz to write his final-year project and completed further training with the Rohde & Schwarz Academy to qualify as a software architect. He recalls: “A big reason for choosing Rohde & Schwarz as an employer was that I was excited about the vast range of in-company qualification options.” He is currently preparing to acquire an additional iSAQB certificate. Ivan has also discovered that he enjoys sharing his knowledge with others. He headed the first hackathon at Rohde & Schwarz. “You could call this contest the extreme coding challenge,” he explains. In the hackathon, he set up problems for teams made up of developers from diverse areas to solve.

"Hackathons are another way to get more and more people used to the idea of cooperating with different teams in their own areas – and ultimately throughout the entire group." - Ivan Kostov, Cloud Software Architect

"As software becomes more and more important in our products, we benefit from sharing and collectively increasing our knowledge among our developer’s community." - Christian Gesell, development engineer and community founder

Collaborative Learning

Rohde & Schwarz products are increasingly being implemented in software. This makesadvanced software development capabilities an important competitive factor. Read on why Kirk makes regular appearances at the Rohde & Schwarz premises in Munich, Bejing and many other cities.

It’s early afternoon. 40 software developers of an internal community are intently following Captain Kirk on a projection screen. They are not watching Star Trek. They are not listening to orders in the pursuit of an unidentified spaceship. They are learning about coding and programming practices, design principles and software design.

Robert C. Martin or Uncle Bob, is known in the developer community – one of the most influential initiators of agile software development. He likes to teach complex, demanding content in entertaining ways, and sometimes that means dressing up as Captain Kirk or Mister Spock.After the one-hour video, the developers break up into small discussion groups where they share their experiences and thoughts on how the ideas in the video can be used in their own development projects. Practical exercises and source code discussions follow.

We invest in the most important asset: our people

There is no innovation without people. This is why we provide our employees with opportunities for learning and growth. The Human Capital Partnership (HCP) Programme recognized our ambitions in Rohde & Schwarz Asia. Learn more in this video.

Here are two of our colleagues from Singapore who explain how they experienced their time at Rohde & Schwarz – what important role has skill transfer, collaboration and professional development had for them?

“We have a common culture even though each of us come from different parts of the world. I appreciate our ways of working together: it gives me an opportunity to experience new insights and gain new technical know-how.” - Gu Fo Purwanto, Manufacturing Support & Services (Photo credits: Gu Fo Purwanto, screenshot from video: Human Capital Partnership – Rohde & Schwarz Asia Pte Ltd (“Skills Transfer” – 90s))

“The learning journey never stops for me – even after 10+ years. Everyday I have something new to learn. Collaboration brings synergy in our development ideas: we complement each other to achieve the same goal.” - Ng Siew Leng, Head of Lab, R&D (Photo credits: Ng Siew Leng, screenshot from video: Human Capital Partnership – Rohde & Schwarz Asia Pte Ltd (“Skills Transfer” – 90s))

Learning to be a leader

Rohde Schwarz Career Leadership video
Here’s a video to give you some valuable insights into what matters to us when it comes to leadership.

So what about becoming a leader? Is this a learning process or is it a talent you are born with? Well, we think it is indeed something you can learn.

If you would like to keep up with the 12,000 people working here, it is essential that learning becomes your second nature. You are not in this alone. We have a dedicated program to take our potential leaders to the next level. With the multi-module R&S Way to Leadership program, we enable all interested employees worldwide to explore the topic of leadership at Rohde & Schwarz and begin acquiring basic skills at an early stage. The goal is to get high potentials involved in this program early on in their careers and spark their interest in taking on management responsibilities in the future.

"Excellent leadership is a key factor in our corporate success. Every single executive shapes good leadership."
Holger Schötz, Executive Vice President Human Resources

What else can you expect