Norman Addis MyZA

Join Port Elizabeth and MyPE in congratulating Mover and Shaker, Norman Addis from VWSA:

Norman Addis was one of the 40 talent recipients at this year’s international awards ‘Best Apprentice Award 2013′ for the one of the Volkswagen Group, and one of two of Volkswagen Group South Africa’s (VWSA) engineering apprentices to receive the award.

Addis is an electrical engineer and started at VWSA as bursary recipient in 2008. Thereafter he became a technician trainee and was later selected as graduate trainee in 2011. He has won numerous awards such as Best Student for Mathematics, Best Automation Student, Best Electrical Engineering Student as well as the 2011 Eskom Chairman’s Award for top Engineering Student in South Africa.

Addis was also involved with the VWSA-NMMU Solar Car project for which he was acknowledged as the Best Industrial Engineering student at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU).

“VWSA has supported me financially and has provided me with the practical training I needed to complete my studies at the NMMU. It was also a privilege to be part of the VWSA-NMMU solar car project – it is what I based my final year BTech project on,” comments Addis.

The accolades for performance excellence and specialist competence during vocational training, were presented to Volkswagen Group’s young employees from 15 different countries around the world. In recognition of their achievements, the award winners were invited to Germany to participate in an exciting programme spanning several days.

After a stringent internal selection process – where competency, efficiency and initiative were evaluated – the applicants were shortlisted and thereafter assessed through interviews.

Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, presented the awards in Germany and commented: “All of the young award winners have demonstrated outstanding performance during their apprenticeships. We are relying on them to be tomorrow’s high performers. Great dedication and professional skill on the part of our employees are one of the factors behind the Volkswagen Group’s success. That is why we will continue to invest extensively in training and developing young people.”

The awards are held every year and have been running for the past 13 years with VWSA apprentices receiving fourteen Best Apprentice Awards during that period.