Merck is the oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company in the world. Its roots date back to the year 1668. Mercks history began when Friedrich Emanuel Merck bought a pharmacy in the city of Darmstadt. Today we run our business in the following fields: 1. Merck Serono - Biopharmaceuticals: Merck Serono is the largest division of Merck. It markets innovative biopharmaceuticals. Merck Serono focuses on highly specialized therapeutic areas such as neurodegenerative diseases, oncology, immuno-oncology, fertility, endocrinology and biosimilars. 2. Consumer Health - Over-the-counter pharmaceuticals: The Consumer Health division offers high-quality over-the-counter products to enhance the quality of life of consumers all over the world. Our brands are available in many countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa. 3. Merck’s Performance Materials division: Offers highly innovative materials, advanced technologies, and high-tech chemicals to clients in the consumer electronics, lighting, printing, plastics, and cosmetics industries. Our market leader products include liquid crystals for LCD displays, new lighting technologies, and functional and effect pigments. 4. Merck Millipore - Life science tools: Merck Millipore offers solutions that enable scientists to conduct life science research easily, efficiently and economically. With a range of more than 60,000 products, Merck Millipore is one of the top three suppliers of tools to the life science industry. The division comprises three business units: Bioscience, Lab Solutions and Process Solutions. Merck has currently over 500 apprentices at Merck in Darmstadt in 21 different professions. Merck has participated in the Leonardo da Vinci Mobility Project since 2002. With this project, 29 apprentices will receive the possibilty of a short-term assingment of 3 months duration within the following countries: Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy. During the assingment our trainees receive a project to work on or support the employees in their daily work. The project is coordinated and momitored during the whole time by the responsible person in Darmstadt. Having organised the project for so many years established a great and trustful network between the partners and the project leader in Darmstadt. Our parnter are either subsidiarys of our company or universities. The main reason for running short term assignments for apprentices is besides enriching their language skills, building up an international network at a very early stage and also getting to know different ways of working and also develop intercultural skills. By offering these assignemts Merck develops very young employees and the results are: more self-confidence and open minded employees, higher bility to work in international teams, increased identification with company, high flexibility and higher willingness to perform. Merck will apply the mobility charta offered by the EU in 2015.