Aurubis improves apprentices' soft skills by 18% with Savvi

Case Study

An Overview

  • Initial situation: Every year, the Swiss Geberit Group trains around 25 apprentices in their first year of training in commercial and industrial/technical professions. Geberit already uses digital learning opportunities for specialist content such as occupational safety.
  • Challenge: The focus is increasingly on soft skills such as self-learning skills, which were previously mainly covered by face-to-face seminars. Gamification for vocational training has already been discussed, but not pursued further due to high costs and complexity.
  • Solution: Geberit uses the Savvi Softskills app for all first-year apprentices. At the start, Geberit selects the most important skills for them, such as being proactive and working with focus. The vocational trainers also integrate Savvi into development discussions and the report booklet.
  • The evaluation shows that: Learners spend 2x as much time in the app as they need to - 58 instead of 30 minutes. They also see their individual development potential and improve by 31% in the first 3 months. This saves the vocational trainers time every week, as they do not have to take care of these additional training sessions.

About Aurubis

The Hamburg-based company is globally active in the field of raw materials and processing of recycled materials. Aurubis has over 20 locations on three continents worldwide and employs over 6,900 people. Around 80 young apprentices and dual students start at the headquarters in Hamburg every year with Aurubis and are trained both in commercial as well as technical-industrial occupations. There are also several interns from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, some of whom are given the opportunity to train at Aurubis after the one-year program.

The Starting Point

Strategic starting point

The strategic importance includes in particular strengthening social and action skills as well as individual promotion and appreciation of apprentices. Apprentices should have the opportunity to learn independently from day 1. Savvi is also being introduced to help the apprenticeship training team to train soft skills.

The challenge

The challenge is to relieve apprentices and to find a well-functioning and quickly integrated digital solution that can be used independently by apprentices. With the help of the solution, apprentices should be able to acquire particularly important soft skills themselves.

The Solution

Setup: In a workshop with the apprenticeship training team, organizational anchoring is discussed

The Savvi team consults with the training team in Hamburg to ensure optimal integration into existing processes. Decisions are made, among other things:

  • Apprenticeship trainers should be given access to Savvi
  • Industrial-technical apprentices should use Savvi during the logbook sessions
  • Commercial apprentices can organize their training time freely
  • There will be a joint kick-off on site with all apprentices
  • Vacation days and Amazon vouchers will be raffled off to particularly active apprentices via the lottery.
"
In order to teach important skills such as communication skills, teamwork, problem-solving skills and emotional intelligence, our instructors create a supportive learning environment, provide feedback, offer practical exercises and incorporate the Savvi app. ”
Nils Gerstenkorn
Apprenticeship manager, Aurubis

💪
📅
🔎

Aurubis provides all apprentices and dual students in their first and second year of training with Savvi!

The good results of the first 12 months after the introduction of the Savvi app for soft skills for apprentices and dual students led Aurubis to decide to use the Savvi app for the first and second year of apprenticeship training.

Start: Identify learning needs via strengths & potentials

Before the start of the training, the group profile was created in order to evaluate the strengths, development potential and interests of the learners. The evaluation serves as a starting point for the adaptive training, which is individually tailored to the learner.
Working independently
79
Working with superiors
59
Managing expectations
68
Being proactive
70
Planning your day
48
Estimating time for tasks
41
Ending your workday
60
Working on tasks in steps
39
Organizing yourself
47
Avoiding distractions
49
Avoiding procrastination
49
Prioritizing tasks
50
Focusing on one task
50
Becoming resilient
50
The potential-analysis enabled each learner to train on their own weaknesses and go through an individual training journey. The vocational trainers also held monthly feedback meetings with the apprentices to discuss which topics they had trained on in recent weeks, how Savvi was able to support the apprentices and what tips and tricks the apprentices were able to take away with them.
💡
Thanks to the group profile, the Geberit apprenticeship training team was able to compare the observations of those responsible for training with objective data for the first time. This enabled them to derive and address learning needs based on data for the first time.

Savvi learning paths: Learners work on their skills for 58 minutes per week

Usually, apprentices need between 15 and 20 minutes to complete their weekly training. Nevertheless, the learners from Geberit spent a full 58 minutes per week in the app and used the numerous additional functions such as Quizzes, Daily Challenges, Duels or the Tip of the Week to get even more out of the app!
58 min
Weekly training time
with Savvi
491
Daily Challenges
successfully completed
415
Quiz questions
answered correctly
132
Duels
successfully completed
96%
Positive ratings
of learning nuggets

The most popular Microtrainings: ❤️

1.
Tackle the causes: Put an end to procrastination
18*
2.
Get the most out of the day through good time planning
17
3.
Write and use to-do lists correctly
16
4.
Separating large tasks into smaller task
16
*how often this Microtraining was trained
91%
App usage rate (higher than 99% of companies that use e-learning)
🕹️
Gamification: Geberit achieves a usage rate of 91% (top 1% of all e-learning courses)
Geberit uses the entire Savvi Gamification Suite for this:
• Duels: Learners can challenge others weekly in the one-armed bandit
• Leaderboard: Learners collect points and compare themselves with others in the ranking list
• Lottery: Learners exchange points for a ticket and can win vouchers

Integration in everyday training: Savvi as part of the report booklet and development meetings

Savvi is also successfully integrated into existing processes as part of the report booklet. In the report booklet, learners record their training with Savvi, when they trained which skills with the Savvi app and how they directly apply new methods. This allows learners to reflect on what they have learned and internalize it.
Savvi is also integrated into the monthly development meetings with the vocational trainers, in which the learners share their topics, thoughts and progress with their vocational trainers and have time together to reflect on topics learned and discuss them in order to promote a deeper exchange between learners and vocational trainers.

Learning for real life: Learners improve by >30%

Short weekly evaluations of self-assessment at the behavioral levels showed an average improvement of over 30%! In the skill “Organizing yourself”, learners even improved by as much as 40% (Being proactive +17%; Focused work +36%).
+31%
Overall, learners have improved by 31%

Results of the first 3 months:

  • Very good participation rates* of 95% for commercial apprentices and 83% for industrial apprentices
  • >490 completed Daily Challenges, >130 duels and a lottery ensured enthusiasm for learning, fun and healthy competition between learners
  • Strong improvement with up to 40% (self-organization) and significant progress (average: 17%-40%) in 3 out of 3 skills

Lasting change: soft skills as part of daily training

By directly incorporating new methodologies and tips and tricks over a long period of time, learners were able to build new habits and integrate them directly into their everyday work. The tips and methods taught by Savvi come from real experts and scientists.

Contents for the first year of training:

In addition to soft skill topics, Aurubis-specific topics will also be part of the training with Savvi. This will make the content even more relevant for Aurubis and relieve the burden on the trainers. Topics such as “Submitting sick notes correctly”, “Successfully adjusting to working life” or “Knowing what to do in an emergency” are particularly relevant for apprentices.
🚀
Getting started at Aurubis
🗣️
Being proactive
⛑️
Complying with work safety
👷‍♀️
Protecting the body
🌱
Becoming resilient
📅
Organizing yourself
❤️
Becoming emotionally competent
💪
Working in a team

Contents for the second year of training:

Building on the topics from the first year of the apprenticeship, the apprentices and dual students train on more complex and related soft skill topics such as “Critical thinking” and “Being a role model”. The training in the second year of the apprenticeship also includes other essential content such as “Financial literacy”, “Using AI correctly” and “Shaping my career”. In this way, second-year apprentices also learn to think and plan for the long term.
🚀
Shaping my career
🧠
Critical thinking
💸
Becoming financially competent
👨🏻‍💻
Using AI properly
♻️
Acting sustainably
🌈
Understanding diversity
🎤
Presenting & moderating
💪
Being a role model

Start: Identify learning needs via strengths & potentials

For each three-month module, a group profile is created at the beginning in order to evaluate the strengths, development potential and interests of the apprentices. The evaluation serves as the starting point for the adaptive training, which is individually tailored to each apprentice.
Sending clear messages
63
Working independently
60
Solving conflicts
64
Communicating effectively
70
Planning the day
43
Estimating time for tasks
49
Ending the work day
54
Completing tasks step by step
60
Organizing yourself
47
Building a growth-mindset
73
Building resilience
48
Strengthening self-awareness
56
Becoming resilient
50
The potential analysis allowed each apprentice to work on their own weaknesses and go through an individual training journey, while the industrial apprentices took Savvi with them to their report booklet sessions and were given time to reflect on what they had learned. This allowed the apprentices to think about what they had learned so far and which topics they would still like to cover.
💡
The Aurubis apprenticeship trainer team also trained with the Savvi app. This not only allowed the trainers to get an idea of the content and the app themselves, but also to pick up a few new techniques.

Savvi learning paths: Learners work on their skills for 58 minutes per week

The apprentices and dual students spent an average of 30 minutes per week in the app and used the numerous additional functions such as quizzes, daily challenges, duels or the tip of the week to get even more out of the app!
30 min
Weekly training time
with Savvi
>730
Daily Challenges
successfully completed
>1.200
Quiz questions
answered correctly
>150
Duels
successfully completed
99%
Positive ratings
of learning nuggets

The most popular Microtrainings: ❤️

1.
Start every work day right
32*
2.
Get the most out of the day through good time planning
23
3.
Write and use to-do lists correctly
23
4.
Building a growth-mindset
20
*how often this microtraining was practiced
85%
the chemists improve in the area of “Planning the day”
🕹️
Gamification: Aurubis gives away vacation days & Amazon vouchers to the hardest-working apprentices
• Duels: Learners can challenge others weekly in the one-armed bandit
• Leaderboard: Learners collect points and compare themselves with others in the ranking list
• Lottery: Learners exchange points for a ticket and can win vouchers

Learning for real life: Learners improve by up to 27%

Short weekly evaluations of self-assessment at the behavioral levels showed an average improvement of over 18%! In the skill “Organizing oneself”, apprentices even improved by as much as 25% (Communicating effectively +12%; Becoming resilient +17%).

An overview of the results:

  • Good participation rates* of 71% for commercial apprentices and 60% for industrial apprentices
  • >730 completed Daily Challenges, >150 duels and a lottery ensured learning enthusiasm,
    fun and healthy competition between the apprentices; in the end, two particularly hard-working
    apprentices were able to enjoy an extra day's vacation
  • Significant improvement of up to 25% (Organizing yourself) and significant progress
    (average: 10%-27%) in all 3 skills
  • Valuable insights through the measurability of soft skills through the regular self-assessment of the apprentices. Savvi gave the apprenticeship trainer team at Aurubis the opportunity to compare their own practical experience with real data for the first time.

Together with the apprenticeship training team, the results were discussed  at a workshop in Hamburg:

The results of the training were discussed in a workshop. The apprenticeship training team also gained additional insights into the data through occupational group-specific analyses. For this purpose, the apprentices were divided into “process technologists, chemists, mechatronics technicians and business people”. Among other things, the strengths and weaknesses profile, the improvement and the participation rate per occupational group were analyzed.
+85%
85% Chemists plan their day better than before training

Occupational group-specific analyses:

The occupational group-specific analyses showed that process engineers and chemists improved particularly strongly in the skill “Organizing yourself”. Chemists improved by 85% over the 12-week training course compared to their initial self-assessment in the area of “Planning the day”.

‍

Improvement per occupational group in the skill “Self-organization” (in %)

32
85
23
10
32
66
14
25
34
40
19
18
17
40
4
24
Planning the day
Estimating time for tasks
Ending the work day
Completing tasks step by step
Process technologists
Chemists
Mechatronics engineers
Business people

In the second module, the focus is on collaboration

In Module 2, the focus is on teamwork with two skills that actively contribute to strengthening these abilities. The skills “Working in a team” and “Communicating effectively” both aim to do exactly that. In addition, the skill “Continuous learning” strengthens the learner's motivation to learn.

Industrial apprentices:

Engagement rate 🎓
Number of completed
weekly trainings
Competence development🌟
Relative development of skills during the training period
Total
16%
Working in a team
16%
Communiating effectively
13%
Learning continuously
20%

Commercial apprentices:

Engagement rate 🎓
Number of completed
weekly trainings
Competence development 🌟
Relative development of skills during the training period
Total
26%
Working in a team
25%
Communicating effectively
27%
Learning continuously
26%
483
Daily Challenges completed
73
Duels against others started and completed
38.200
Experience Points as the current high score
96%
of Microtrainings rated as helpful

In Module 3, learners learn how to deal with emotions and stress

In the third module, the focus is on dealing with one's own emotions and the emotions of others. To this end, learners train the skills “Becoming emotionally competent” and “Becoming resilient” and learn to reflect and deal with stress. The third skill trained is “Solution-oriented work”.

Industrial apprentices:

Engagement rate 🎓
Number of completed
weekly trainings
Competence development 🌟
Relative development of skills during the training period
Total
21%
Working solution-oriented
24%
Becoming emotionally copetent
19%
Becoming resilient
19%

Commercial apprentices:

Engagement rate 🎓
Number of completed
weekly trainings
Competence development 🌟
Relative development of skills during the training period
Total
27%
Working solution-oriented
23%
Becoming emotionally competent
25%
Becoming resilient
34%
400
Daily Challenges completed
108
Duels against others started and completed
41.250
Experience Points as the current high score
90%
of Microtrainings rated as helpful

Further cooperation between Geberit and Savvi

Geberit's apprentices will use Savvi for a total period of 12 months from January 2024 to January 2025. All parties are very satisfied with the collaboration. For Geberit, Savvi offers a very good addition to the learning opportunities for apprentices, but the decision was nevertheless made not to continue the collaboration for the time being due to the many existing further training opportunities.

Module 4

In the 4th and, for the time being, last module, two advanced training courses are held to further strengthen learners' skills in these important topics. In addition to “Becoming resilient 2” and “Continuous learning 2”, learners train in “Using AI correctly”. In this skill, they learn how to use AI responsibly and get to know specific areas of application for AI.
🧠
Learning continuously 2
🌱
Becoming resilient 2
👨🏻‍💻
Using AI properly
"
Promoting soft skills is an essential part of our education, as they support professional and personal development. The Savvi app is used effectively and is also used by our trainers. ”
Patrick Hoffmann
Apprentice trainer, Aurubis
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