・SUBARU

SUBARU has established a system and environment that encourages individual growth and organizational growth, providing employees with a wide range of training opportunities.
With respect to individual growth, we provide career development support and programs that enable employees to acquire a variety of business skills so that each employee can acquire skills according to their own career plan. In FYE March 2025, we also introduced a system that allows employees to autonomously seek learning opportunities with full support from the Company to further underpin the growth of individuals.
In terms of organizational growth, beginning in FYE March 2025, we have been implementing a program to strengthen management skills at the managerial level to maximize individual strengths, and a large-scale training program to help us become “One SUBARU” through collaboration across divisions and teams. This is designed to elicit both vertical and horizontal organizational growth.

・Group companies in Japan

Based on the concept of shared Group human resource development, we are taking development actions through training and exchanges across the Group.
Like SUBARU, Group companies in Japan operate training programs focused on individual growth and organizational growth. In the area of individual growth, we have established mechanisms to support people who take on challenges, centering on voluntary participation and elective programs. As for organizational growth, we have introduced measures to maximize results generated by organizations and teams, with a focus on managers who lead these organizations.

・Overseas Group company

We support the development of Group company employees outside Japan by providing talent development programs connected to capabilities needed and specialized skill development, based on regional systems, business content, and other factors.

SUBARU’s Training Programs

SUBARU provides programs according to level and objectives based on the following diagram.

Major Measures

1. Career Support

As part of efforts to support employees in self-driven career development, we have created a Career Design Sheet that provides employees with opportunities to think independently about their careers, and conduct career interviews with their supervisors using this sheet.
In addition, to enable supervisors to address individual staff members’ careers and support their future, we conduct career management training for newly appointed managers to improve the awareness and skills of those at the management level.

2. Strengthening Business Skills

All employees are offered a choice of various business skill development support programs in accordance with their individual levels, goals, and career plans. We offer a variety of programs, including on-demand programs that allow employees to learn in their spare time, as well as online and face-to-face programs with outside instructors.
The Cultivation Fund, which was introduced in June 2024, is a program that not only provides educational opportunities directly from a SUBARU entity, but also allows employees to seek out learning opportunities that will lead to the evolution of their work. If their educational endeavors are approved, they can receive monetary support from the company. We will strive to become the best-in-class worldwide in each field and to improve our true competitiveness by having our employees return their learning to the growth of the organization.

3. Understanding SUBARU’s DNA

Our onboarding program is designed to promote understanding and resonance with our values and culture (DNA) so that mid-career hires can develop a sense of identity and pride in being a member of SUBARU and integrate with the organization at an early stage. Through these programs, we seek to increase participants’ motivation and foster engagement in their work.

• History lecture: Participants deepen their understanding of our corporate culture by learning about SUBARU’s history, from its founding to the present day, and the background of its management philosophy and values.
• Plant tours: These foster an awareness of the connection with the workplace through tours of actual manufacturing sites, where participants can experience the passion and commitment to quality that goes into the creation of products.

4. Executive Talent Development

SUBARU offers training for selected manager and leader class employees with the aim of continually fostering the next generation of Executive talent.

5. Rank-specific Training

Participants systematically learn the roles, mindsets, and skills required for each qualification and position. Training for managers includes practical skills such as logical thinking, evaluator skills, and authority delegation skills to solve organizational problems and drive transformation.

6. Enhancing Organizational Capabilities

The Facilitation & Coaching NEXT Training program is designed to promote collaboration across divisions and job functions, and to enhance the sense of unity and productivity of the entire organization. In this training, participants will acquire communication skills to promote consensus building and mutual understanding through dialogue.
From FYE March 2025 to the first half of FYE March 2026, all members of the management level completed this training. In the future, we will further expand the scope of the program to lower levels and stimulate unification to become “One SUBARU” that transcends organizational barriers.

We also offer voluntary participation training programs, including one focused on Enhancing Organizational Capabilities to learn leadership and management skills to create results as a team. We are working to cultivate managers who can maximize the abilities of diverse human resources and strengthen their organizations.

Results from the Major Training Programs (SUBARU)

(FYE March)

*

This is a compilation of training sessions hosted by the Human Resources Department at each business site. In addition to the above table, each department plans and operates its own training for its employees to acquire the knowledge and skills required for work.

Other Major Human Resource Development Measures

1. Engineer Development

SUBARU believes that in order to maintain sustainable competitive advantage as a corporation, it is essential that we cultivate engineers capable of creating technological value that captures market changes and meets customer expectations. In this period of great transformation in the automobile industry, SUBARU is strengthening its unique technological capabilities by adding new capabilities (skills) that capture changes in the times in addition to the capabilities we have cultivated up to now. SUBARU is actively working toward this “upskilling” of its employees in the software domain, particularly for its engineering human resources.
Given that areas related to software will greatly influence a company’s car manufacturing and functional values, we launched the Software Human Resource Development Project in FYE March 2023. This project aims to cultivate human resources capable of understanding and developing both vehicles and software, direct drivers of greater product strength and “Monozukuri Innovation.” In this project, we have set up programs for new employees and existing employees, offering educational courses for each level. For new employees, we have set up two courses: the Embedded Systems Course, which applies software technology to product development, and the AI/DX Course. As of FYE March 2024, all 350 new employees who joined the engineering department have taken these courses, with around 20 of them progressing to the advanced level. At the advanced level of the Embedded Systems Course, we are working to develop core human resources who can develop infrastructure software through training that is in line with the actual work of the development site. In the advanced level of the AI/DX Course, students are assigned to the SUBARU Lab, which leads the development of advanced technologies that combine EyeSight and AI, and they acquire practical and advanced AI development skills. Furthermore, through education that takes into account the needs of each workplace, we aim to apply the results of education to actual work, and contribute to improving the productivity of the entire organization and driving technological innovation. For existing employees, we provide an introductory-level AI/DX Literacy Course for all 4,000 people in the engineering department. Furthermore, of these, more than 200 people from those who were recommended based on technical strategies and those who wished to do so based on their own volition have stepped up to the next level and are improving their technical capabilities. These initiatives are now more than just a way to improve skills, becoming an important driving force for organizational transformation and strengthening competitiveness. Going forward, we will continue to aim for qualitative improvement in these initiatives.

2. Open-Call Job Rotation System

SUBARU introduced an open-call job rotation system in FYE March 2022 as a scheme to support employees in the career plans they have developed for themselves.
Under this system, employees voluntarily apply for open positions offered by each department, and if conditions are met for both sides, the employee is transferred.
In the four years since introduction of this system, more than 300 employees have gained new career opportunities.
Users have commented on how rewarding it is, how it gives them a sense of tackling new challenges, and how it broadens their perspectives.
The purpose of the system is to strengthen individual capabilities through career plan support, while also strengthening the organization through benefits from mobility of human resources.

■Taking on the National Skills Competition^*1

SUBARU participates in the National Skills Competition, which is designed to cultivate talent with advanced technical skills and who can lead in the workplace.
Each year, SUBARU employees compete to be the best in Japan in three categories—lathe work, plastic molding, and automobile sheet metal. For about three years from when they join the Company, competitors strive every day to hone their skills, concentration, and endurance so that they can do their best at this national competition.
SUBARU has participated in the National Skills Competition for over 20 years. In 2017, our participants won the gold medal in the automobile sheet metal category, and have continued to win awards every year since then. In the 62nd competition, held in 2024, SUBARU representatives won the Silver and Fighting Spirit Awards. Including this achievement, we have won a cumulative total of 59 medals^*2.

*1

The National Skills Competition is an event sponsored by the Japan Vocational Ability Development Association for young technicians (in principle, up to 23 years old) in Japan, with the aim of providing young technicians with a goal to strive for through skill competitions, and providing opportunities to come in contact with skills, etc., to appeal broadly to the general public about the importance and necessity of skills, and to help build momentum toward respect for technical skills.

*2

Total awards (54) include 1 Gold Award, 3 Silver Awards, 14 Bronze Awards, and 36 Fighting Spirit Awards.

SUBARU Awards in the National Skills Competition