2004 Hermann Schmidt Prize
Customer-orientedness in vocational training
Award recognizes new paths being taken in vocational training in all sectors and recognized occupations
Sponsored by the Association for Innovative Vocational Training, the competition for this year's Hermann Schmidt Prize targets companies, schools and educational facilities in all sectors and fields of training which help promote the guiding principle of customer-orientedness through training measures or projects involving initial or continuing vocational training.
The precepts of friendliness and competence in dealings with customers have increasingly found their way into new recognized occupations, Fortbildungsberufe (occupations that require qualification acquired in the course of further vocational training) and the continuing education and training field in recent years. "The customer is king" and "we aim to please" are well-known slogans aimed at expressing a company's customer-orientedness.
However, the word "customer-orientedness" entails more than just friendly treatment of customers when advising them or making a sales pitch. Customer-orientedness is a part of the overall business process that starts with planning and development, proceeds through design, production and consultation and extends all the way to handing over the product or rendering a service, which also includes after-sales service.
In the past it was primarily commercial services that laid claim to being customer-oriented. Today all sectors of the economy are also doing so.
The focus of business considerations in a wide array of industries has shifted from products and services to the customer. The term "customer" is complex and encompasses in particular consumers, users, clients, patients, members and similar groups.
During the days of the industrial society, manufacturing good, high-quality products took centre stage. The transition from industrial to service society is placing the customer increasingly front and centre. As a result, customer-orientedness - regardless of the industry, size of company or type of enterprise - is becoming the guiding principle for various areas of the economy and society with the aim of acquiring and keeping customers and thus ensuring economic success. This requires a shift away from the traditional perspective and toward a customer-oriented perspective which has become a vital aspect of vocational training today.
At the same time, so-called "soft skills" are becoming an increasingly important prerequisite and foundation for economic success.
The competition targets examples of customer-orientedness that are geared to action and to being put into actual practice, examples that take already known paths a step further, that expand upon these paths and provide new ideas that help:
- Improve customer-orientedness in conjunction with specialized skills;
- Foster customer-orientedness as a sign of flexibility and organizational talent;
- Highlight the dynamic relationship between operating targets, in-company cooperation and interaction with customers;
- View customer-orientedness as an aspect of providing competent advice;
- Provide measures and tools for dealing with conflict and complaints;
- Foster willingness to work as a member of a team, to communicate and to collaborate;
- Develop new forms of instruction and teaching and learning materials that help foster customer-orientedness;
- Foster a holistic approach to operational procedures during initial and continuing training;
- Convey an understanding of the connection between empathy, the ability to express oneself well and competence.
Six prizes will be awarded by an independent jury of experts:
- 1st prize: € 2,000
- 2nd prize: € 1,000
- 3rd prize: € 500
- Three additional special prizes
The prizes will be awarded at a ceremony that will be held at the Christiani Instructor Conference in Constance, Germany, on September 23, 2004.
Deadline for submissions: June 18, 2004
If you would like to enter this competition, please complete the application form 
(using additional sheets for any necessary explanations) and send it in duplicate to the following address by June 18, 2004:
Verein Innovative Berufsbildung e.V. (Association for Innovative Vocational Training)
c/o Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung
z. Hd. Frau Arenz
Robert-Schuman-Platz 3
53175 Bonn
Germany
E-mail: arenz@bibb.de
Tel.: + 49 228 - 10 72 823
Fax: + 49 228 - 10 72 981
