Mercedes-Benz CSR committee sends top auto students to German headquarters

The Mercedes-Benz Corporate Social Responsibility Committee has taken a group of automotive students on a tour of the brand's German headquarters, giving them a firsthand look at global production and education facilities as the industry accelerates its shift toward electrification and smart manufacturing.

The committee announced Monday that it ran a five-night, seven-day headquarters tour in Germany for nine top graduates of the 19th Mercedes-Benz Mobile Academy cohort, beginning June 28.

The Mobile Academy is an industry-academia partnership program designed to develop talent in the automotive field. It offers students at specialized automotive colleges and universities across South Korea a curriculum built around Mercedes-Benz technology and training. Since its launch in 2014, the program has run for 12 years and enrolled about 1,500 students.

"This Germany headquarters tour is a meaningful opportunity for students to broaden their understanding of the future automotive industry by experiencing global production and education facilities firsthand," said Lee Sang-guk, a committee member of the Mercedes-Benz CSR Committee. "Through the Mobile Academy, we will continue to support future mobility industry talent in growing into professionals with specialized expertise and global capabilities."

The 19th Mobile Academy cohort began last September. Some 200 students from 10 specialized automotive departments nationwide took part in the foundational course, and nine who completed the advanced curriculum with outstanding results were selected for the Germany headquarters tour.

The students visited Factory 56, a smart production facility in the Sindelfingen factory complex in southern Germany. Mercedes-Benz opened the advanced manufacturing facility in September 2020 after investing about 730 million euros ($834 million). It features a flexible production system capable of assembling electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles on a single line.

At the site, the group also observed the assembly process for the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, scheduled to launch in South Korea in the third quarter of this year. Students examined production automation, quality control and electrified vehicle manufacturing methods up close.

The tour also included a visit to the Global Training Center on the headquarters campus — a worldwide education hub that trains employees and partners from around the globe on brand history, products, electrification technology and customer experience. The center develops and operates programs that serve as the benchmark for an education network spanning about 70 countries.

At the Mercedes-Benz Museum, the students explored 140 years of brand history and technological innovation. They also toured the Mercedes-AMG plant in Affalterbach, observing the full production process from high-performance engine assembly through to final inspection.

Particularly notable at the AMG plant was the "One Man, One Engine" manufacturing philosophy, under which a single engineer takes responsibility for the key assembly stages of each engine — a system that emphasizes craftsmanship and quality control in high-performance vehicle production.

An Hyeon-min, a student from Daelim University College who took part in the tour, said it was "a great opportunity to see firsthand how 140 years of Mercedes-Benz heritage and innovation have carried through to today's automotive technology." He added that observing the changes and progress of the automotive industry "solidified my goal of growing into a talent who can contribute to the future automotive industry as an engineer."

Since the Mobile Academy launched, the CSR Committee has produced about 1,500 graduates. Of those, more than 180 top graduates have been given the opportunity to tour the German headquarters.

Graduates also receive career support, including connections to job opportunities at official Mercedes-Benz partner companies. Beyond the Mobile Academy, the CSR Committee runs programs including children's traffic safety education, employee volunteer activities, donation initiatives and a carbon neutrality climate action program.