“Grasping allowed!” Transfer of theoretical and practical skills for professionals: Successful training year 2024 of the BILSTEIN Academy
Essen, 17 December 2024. At the end of 2024, Rainer Popiol and Dimitris Kouvaras take stock: The BILSTEIN Academy looks back on a successful training year, and even a record was broken! Around 500 training courses with over 10,000 participants – this result is teamwork put into practice by the trainers. And it has proven itself once again: Training courses are professionally vital for the participants.
BILSTEIN training courses are global and take place in China, the DACH region, the USA, Poland, Hungary and Thailand – to name just a few important training locations. They are offered through internal and external partners, not only for workshops, but also for OE sales or designers and engineers. “A remarkable example of recent successes is the work of BILSTEIN trainer Jurij Krizhanivskyi from Ukraine:“ and participants there refused to give up their training even in the face of difficult times and sat in cold training rooms in winter wearing anoraks,” says Rainer Popiol.
In addition to imparting knowledge, the aim of the training is also to increase the motivation of the participants: to familiarise themselves with the complex suspension technology and apply it with competence. For this purpose, the Academy team is working closely with the BILSTEIN Sales, Marketing and Technical Support departments.
How has the BILSTEIN Academy developed?
Rainer Popiol started working for the BILSTEIN Academy in 2001, Dimitris Kouvaras had started in Greece in 2000 and trained 1,800 workshops as well as the dealerships. The international BILSTEIN training concept was launched in the same year and full-time trainers were trained successively. Rainer Popiol: “Some of our BILSTEIN trainers are external experts who provide training in the local language. We currently have over 50 trainers in our regular staff. They are already very well known in their respective countries.”
Following a slump in training numbers, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 proved to be an opportunity: the Academy team implemented an innovative e-learning concept, set up new online systems and created online-compatible documents. A side effect was also a reduced CO2 footprint for BILSTEIN, as far less participants had to travel to training locations.
Rainer Popiol adds: “At BILSTEIN, we have a two-pronged approach to training: digital as well as face-to-face. This blended learning has proven to be ideal. We prepare the technical basis digitally so that we can then go live in practice, for example with the installation of the air spring.” On average, between twelve and twenty participants attend the face-to-face training sessions. “Personal contact is ultimately an important factor – because the trainers can respond spontaneously to questions and answer them in a dialogue that is instructive for everyone”, says Popiol.
This year, the focus was on the air suspension module. The aim is to ensure that, among other things, “small but crucial mistakes” are no longer made during installation. A good example of this is to observe the markings for air spring replacement, which are essential for correct installation. Finally, the trainers also collect feedback and questions and adjust the teaching content accordingly.
What does BILSTEIN make differently?
“We do less ‘pure product sales’ but rather more ‘technical training”. In other words, we explain the details of BILSTEIN technologies, convey the ‘BILSTEIN perspective’ and provide practical training on the suspension itself,” explains Kouvaras.
“Our trainees include master craftsmen and apprentices, training and test engineers or, for example, special police investigation teams who want to gain deeper technical insights, the motorsports association DSK Deutscher Sportfahrer Kreis, teachers and many more.”
Rainer Popiol and Dimitris Kouvaras are often on the road for their training courses – Dimitris Kouvaras emphasises: “The presentation with the projector should never be dull.” This is one of the reasons why we have functional models made of acrylic glass, new shock absorbers and used and defective parts with us to clearly explain wear and tear and damage patterns. ‘Grasping allowed’ – in your head and with your hands.”
Link to the training page: https://workshop.bilstein.com/de/trainings-schulungen/
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Photos: copyright BILSTEIN 2024. Reproduction free of charge if source is named.
Photo: Dimitris Kouvaras, BILSTEIN Global Training Manager at the BILSTEIN Academy.
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