Group Management Report Products Safety Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 95
Competition for Young People
With regard to promoting students at the upper secondary
level, ALTANA focused on already established cooperative
ventures in 2016. For instance, the company offered a special
prize in chemistry at the “Jugend gründet” (Youth Startups)
competition last year for the second time. In addition,
ALTANA
participated in the Germany-wide “CEO for 1 Day”
student campaign again.
In the multistage “Jugend gründet” competition, sponsored
by the German Federal Ministry of Education and
Research,
a group from the Romain Rolland high school in
Berlin won the special prize in chemistry for their “GreenSilicon”
business plan, which consists of a sustainable recycling
concept that would enable silicon to be economically recycled
for the first time. The prize included a five-day trip to the
East Coast of the U.S. during which the students visited
one of the ALTANA Group’s largest research and production
sites, in Wallingford at BYK USA, in the fall of 2016.
The objective of the “CEO for 1 Day” campaign is to reduce
prejudices and distance between schools and business.
In a first step, the school classes selected had the opportunity
to get to know management board members
of the participating companies in personal talks. In this framework,
the CEO of ALTANA AG, Martin Babilas, answered
questions posed by students at Gerresheim high school in
Düsseldorf in June 2016. In a second step, the participants
completed a two-day casting in the form of a professional
management audit to qualify for the CEO position. From
the Düsseldorf high school, Shiva Mobini-Tehrani convinced
the jury of experts and exchanged her school desk for the
executive
chair at ALTANA for a day on November 3, 2016.
Further Training for Teachers
In 2016, ALTANA sponsored further training geared specifically
to science teachers for the first time. Organized by
the “Schule MIT Wissenschaft” (School MIT Science) initiative,
a three-day conference in Hamburg, whose slogan was
“Begeisterer
begeistern” (Inspire Inspirators), enabled educators
to exchange experiences and to gain new scientific
knowledge. Without the support of sponsors such as
ALTANA,
the top-class event featuring Nobel Prize winners
and several other scientists could not have been realized.
German Courses for Refugees
ALTANA supports the integration of refugees in Germany by
sponsoring a concept for German language training developed
by the charity organization Malteser Werke. The latter
received funding of 250,000 euros from ALTANA via the
relief
coalition “Aktion Deutschland Hilft” (see page 40 ff.).
Moreover, at the Wesel site, ALTANA donations help fund
a German literacy
course called into being by a local refugee
aid organization in cooperation with the Wesel Volkshochschule
(adult education center) and the Catholic Education
Forum Wesel. The aim of the 500-hour course is to teach
the participants
to read and write in addition to learning the
new language.
Promoting Students in Brazil and Malawi
Our cooperation with the nonprofit organization Passo Fundo
e.V. has proven successful over many years. In 2016,
ALTANA
once again provided university scholarships for talented
students who cannot afford to study, three in Brazil
and two in Malawi. In exchange, the young people agree to
become involved in a social project.