Sep 2 2013
Around 2,200 young people will be starting their professional careers at about 40 Siemens locations Germany-wide at the beginning of the new training year. Once again, the new trainees will include 31 participants in the Europeans@Siemens program.
Hailing from 12 EU countries – including Spain, Greece, Poland and the UK – the 31 career-starters will train in Berlin and return to their native countries upon graduation. Europeans@Siemens was launched as a pilot project in 2012. "The first year was a complete success – for the young people and for Siemens. That's why we're eager to continue the program," said Brigitte Ederer, Siemens' Chief Human Resources Officer and Labor Director. "Training at Siemens is increasingly international in orientation," she added. "We've run training programs in many countries for years. They're helping us build the next generation of qualified employees while making a small contribution to the fight against youth unemployment."
About 80 percent of the new trainees in Germany will be in apprenticeship or two-track programs in technical fields. Siemens offers training opportunities in electronics, mechatronics, machining and IT, for example. Slightly more than a third of the training positions at the company are in two-track education programs, which offer participants the chance to earn a bachelor's degree as well as the customary German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) degree. For the sixth time in a row, Siemens is also making training positions available Germany-wide for disadvantaged youth.
There were about 2,500 applications for the 31 places in this year's Europeans@Siemens program. The young people are being sent to Berlin by the Siemens Regional Companies in their respective countries. Once in the German capital, they'll train for careers in electronics for industrial engineering or in mechatronics engineering. The program combines theory with hands-on experience. Since their final examinations will be in German, the young career-starters will take an intensive German course for the first six weeks.
The Europeans@Siemens program is just one of Siemens' international training initiatives. The company has been successfully implementing two-track education on the German model in countries outside Germany for years. About 1,000 young people in six European countries outside Germany are now receiving professional training at Siemens. Programs are currently running in Austria, Switzerland, the UK, Spain, Portugal and Hungary.
With some 10,000 trainees and university students in two-track education programs, Siemens is one of Germany's largest private training organizations. Of the participants, more than 7,000 are training for careers at Siemens and slightly less than 3,000 for work at other companies. In fiscal 2012, Siemens invested €183 million in training in Germany and €216 million worldwide.
More information on training at Siemens is available at www.siemens.de/ausbildung and www.facebook.com/StarteDeinSiemens
Source: http://www.siemens.com/