Fresenius Group Sustainability Employees 
An important module here is our trainee program, which has become an established entry opportunity for high-potential junior specialists and managers in all business segments.
We have continued to expand our personnel marketing activities in order to reach interested and suitable potential employees and persuade them to further their careers with Fresenius. This is particularly important since most people only come into contact with our products and services in extreme personal situations. Consequently, activities such as our presence at careers fairs at selected universities, and presentations given by our employees at careers events, are a vital aspect of our personnel marketing activities. We continually update the careers section of our website. A new element – an electronic e-recruiting system – has been added. This tool not only facilitates the job application process, making it faster and more transparent, but also enhances the contact between interested applicants and our company during the application phase. Our aim is to be the employer of choice for high-potential job applicants. More information is available at www.fresenius.com/career.
To make HELIOS more attractive to job applicants, the company has also created an online application tool where applicants can find out about vacancies and apply online. The response to the HELIOS careers portal is very positive. Over 8,000 applications were received by the end of December 2008. More information is available at www.helios-kliniken.de/jobs.
In 2008, HELIOS again significantly widened the range of seminars the HELIOS Academy offers for various professional groups. The most important of these are the hands-on courses (e. g. basic principles of minimal invasion surgery) and specialist seminars (e.g. dealing with emergencies in anesthesia) in special simulation centers. Here, HELIOS employees have the opportunity to learn the basics or acquire specialist knowhow, pool experiences, and improve procedures. The spectrum of modular training programs – especially for nursing care – has been extended. In addition to the fields of management, coaching, and anesthesia/intensive care, modules are now also offered for surgery staff. The seminars offered by the HELIOS Academy are being supplemented by an ever wider offering of online modules: All employees have roundthe- clock access to online modules on specific themes, ranging from the right action in the event of clinical emergencies through to performing injections. More information on the training opportunities offered by HELIOS is available at www.helios-akademie.de.
We have also extended our development programs for middle management medical and nursing staff. As in the past, employees can broaden and deepen their leadership skills through a combination of seminars/workshops and work on an interdisciplinary project, in this way preparing themselves for advanced management positions at HELIOS. In 2009, we plan to resume our executive development program in the area of Management. To align the development of future management staff with the Group’s sustained growth, we have significantly broadened our trainee programs in the areas of Hospital Management, Finance & Controlling, and Purchasing & Logistics, and added the field of Medical Equipment.
The Bachelor in Nursing Care, the first-ever degree course for nursing staff, was launched in Germany during the past year. This course, developed in collaboration by HELIOS and SRH Fachhochschule Gera, is directed at qualified nurses wishing to pursue further academic professional training and to acquire additional competence in nursing care management and medical science. Offered as a sandwich course, the degree course is practice-oriented. The major subjects are anesthesiology/anesthesia care or intensive medicine/intensive care, with a further module chosen from the areas of emergency medicine/emergency care, pain therapy/pain management, oncology and palliative medicine/care or diseases of old-age and diseases of civilization. The curriculum aims to provide for the future demands of day-to-day hospital life, thus catering for the concrete skill profiles required by German clinics.
