Press Release
20 May 2015
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METRO GROUP launches joint trade education platform
with two German trade industry associations
Online portal www.handel-erklaert.de provides learning materials for
secondary and vocational schools
Ad-free, educationally refined teaching materials on key aspects of trade
Offering underscores industries importance as a key economic sector with
more than 33 million employees across Europe
Düsseldorf, 20 May 2015 – METRO GROUP, the German Retail Federation HDE
and the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services BGA have
launched the first online platform for comprehensive learning materials on the trade
sector. Starting immediately, secondary and vocational school teachers can make
use of a collection of educationally refined adapted teaching materials on various
aspects of trade for economic, political and social subjects under the link
www.handel-erklaert.de. The offering is rounded out by information on changing
topics of current interest such as traceability in food retail.
It is impossible to imagine a world without trade: It is a key pillar of the economy,
yet is frequently not recognised as such. For this reason, the new online portal
www.handel-erklaert.de has been launched to bundle teaching materials about
this important sector of the economy. The new platform provides an overview of
the multifaceted trade sector divided into four subject areas: wholesale and retail,
economy, society and environment. Practical teaching material – developed with
the help of teachers – can be used for in-depth classroom teaching on the
respective subjects. Lesson planning aids are complemented by guidelines on
learning objectives and performance expectations. All teaching materials about
trade are purely informative and free of ads. The contents and work sheets are
rounded out by supplementary information on current, sector-specific topics of
interest such as new traceability technologies for food retail.
METRO AG
Corporate Communications
Metro-Straße 1
40235 Düsseldorf
Telephone +49 (0) 211 68 86-42 52
Fax +49 (0) 211 68 86-20 01
www.metrogroup.de
presse@metro.de
Press Release
20 May 2015
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Three partners for a strong sector
The trade sector is integral to everyday life with more than 33 million employees
across Europe. In Germany, the sector offers a disproportionately large number
of trainee positions. About 220,000 trainees are currently training for a job in this
sector. Together with the German Retail Federation HDE and the Federation of
German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services BGA, companies like METRO
GROUP have committed themselves to the long-term promotion of education.
METRO GROUP, BGA and HDE have launched the platform “Handel erklärt”
(“Retail explained”) to generate interest in trade and a career in this sector among
young people.
Retail and wholesale – a wealth of opportunities
The retail and wholesale segments offer various specific strengths and
opportunities that are not equally well known. The German retail industry employs
more than 3 million people working in sales, logistics, marketing, online trading,
procurement and administration. As such, retail is one of Germany’s largest
employers providing one in every 12 jobs. The retail sector will remain an
important employer in future: The sector currently trains 160,000 young people in
more than 30 professions complemented by attractive specific occupational
profiles requiring advanced vocational training. The share of apprentices in the
retail sector exceeds the average of all sectors of the German economy.
Vocational training in the retail industry offers young people excellent career
prospects – many young Germans still start their career with an apprenticeship.
Wholesale’s strengths are based on its business-to-business (B2B) approach.
The sector supplies industry, skilled crafts and trades, retail and gastronomy with
all they need to do business, linking the different distribution levels. With 1.7
million employees generating more than € 1.1 trillion in sales it is Germany’s
second-largest economic sector and one of the country’s major employers. The
sector’s roughly 60,000 apprentices are trained in more than 40 occupations
ranging from wholesale and export traders to logistics, marketing and IT
METRO AG
Corporate Communications
Metro-Straße 1
40235 Düsseldorf
Telephone +49 (0) 211 68 86-42 52
Fax +49 (0) 211 68 86-20 01
www.metrogroup.de
presse@metro.de
Press Release
20 May 2015
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specialists. The choice of training, employment and career opportunities is
enormous. With the young talent campaign “GROSS HANDELN – GROSS
RAUSKOMMEN” (“Making it big in wholesale”) the sector seeks to attract
tomorrow’s top professionals.
In a reflection of the sector’s broad nature, the partners regularly add information
on current topics of interest from all areas of trade to the platform www.handelerklaert.de and continuously develop the teaching materials provided through this
platform.
METRO GROUP is one of the most important international trading companies. In the
financial year 2013/14, it generated sales of about €63 billion. The company operates
around 2,200 stores in 30 countries and has a headcount of around 250,000 employees.
The performance of METRO GROUP is based on the strength of its sales brands that
operate independently in their respective market segments: METRO/MAKRO Cash &
Carry – the international leader in self-service wholesale –, Media Markt and Saturn – the
European market leader in consumer electronics retailing – Real hypermarkets and
Galeria Kaufhof department stores. For more information, please visit
www.metrogroup.de.
The German Retail Federation (HDE) was founded in 1919 as the overarching
organisation of the German retail sector and officially represents the sector’s interests visà-vis the political community and the public. The association has 100,000 business
members across all sectors, locations and sizes. HDE gives a single voice to the multifaceted retail sector ranging from medium-sized businesses to global players and
traditional inner-city retailers to online traders. HDE is the legitimate voice of the sector
vis-à-vis the national and EU level as well as vis-à-vis other sectors of industry, the media
and the public. In this work, HDE is supported by numerous national and regional
associations across Germany as well as sector-specific associations. As an umbrella
organisation of employer associations, HDE represents the retail sector within the
Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA).
BGA is the leading organisation for the wholesale, foreign trade and service sector in
Germany. The BGA network bundles the expertise of 48 sector organisations and 20
national and regional associations and represents its members’ general professional,
economic and socio-political interests through local representations in Berlin and Brussels
as well as through more than 100 organisations around the world. BGA has made it one
of its key goals to provide its members with a networking platform. In addition, BGA
provides its members with practical information about the implications of new legislative
and regulatory developments for companies.
METRO AG
Corporate Communications
Metro-Straße 1
40235 Düsseldorf
Telephone +49 (0) 211 68 86-42 52
Fax +49 (0) 211 68 86-20 01
www.metrogroup.de
presse@metro.de