Volkswagen officials are ready to start taking applications to hire its first hourly workers for the Chattanooga auto assembly plant.

Tuesday, VW will begin accepting applications for maintenance employees who provide technical expertise to diagnose, troubleshoot and improve high-tech equipment used in manufacturing vehicles.

Hans-Herbert Jagla, executive vice president of human resources for VW’s local operation, said these employees have “a crucial role” at the plant.

They will help with the installation of the manufacturing equipment and maintain it, he said.

Mr. Jagla said the skilled maintenance workers do not make the cars. VW will start taking applications for production workers, who will comprise most of the 2,000 workers at the plant, toward the end of the year.

VW plans to hire about 150 maintenance workers over the next two years, filling some 20 slots in 2009.

Starting wages will be $22 an hour, gradually increasing to $27 per hour after 36 months, company officials said. The workers will be eligible for a comprehensive benefits package, including medical and dental plans, life insurance and retirement savings, according to VW.

Ryan Rose, VW’s general manager for human resources in the city, said the first workers will help get the production line set up and running smoothly.

“Later, when we hire the production team members, they can then have a good and efficient environment to build the cars,” he said.

Ideally, the maintenance workers will have a two-year technical degree or comparable work experience in electricity, electronics, the industrial-mechanical area and facilities maintenance, Mr. Rose said.

“The candidates we’re looking for would have applicable experience in at least one of these areas,” he said. “The ideal is to have people with experience in more than one.”

For example, if someone is troubleshooting a robot, the person needs experience in electronics but also should know about fluid power and mechanics, Mr. Rose said.

VW expects to get several thousands of applications for the jobs.

“We’ll take all the applications and review them and try to pull the best-fit candidates to the next step,” Mr. Rose said.

Mr. Jagla said VW wants to hire locally, starting with people in Chattanooga, Hamilton County and surrounding counties.

“We are convinced we’ll get a lot of people out of this region, especially Tennessee,” he said.

Plans are to start hiring the skilled maintenance workers in November to coincide with need.

Mr. Rose said if someone applies for a maintenance job, that doesn’t mean they’ve applied for the production jobs.

Also, past experience with an automotive company doesn’t guarantee a slot, but could be an advantage, he said.

Mr. Jagla said people hired for maintenance slots will travel abroad to VW locations in Mexico or Germany.

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