During her trip to Germany, Ivanka Trump, First Daughter and Assistant to the U.S. President Donald Trump, visited Siemens’ training center in Berlin. Accompanied by Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG, she talked to trainees and teachers at the facility to find out more about Germany’s two-track training system. Ivanka Trump’s visit to Berlin followed a roundtable on vocational education and workforce development that she hosted with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House in March. At the event, Joe Kaeser, who was among the participants, made several commitments to President Trump regarding U.S. workforce development, including for example leading an industry effort to significantly expand apprenticeship programs in the United States.
“Germany’s two-track system is greatly admired worldwide, and the excellent reputation enjoyed by products ‘Made in Germany’ is connected with it in many ways. Our training system at Siemens combines the two-track system with our global network of more than 400 locations worldwide,” said Siemens President and CEO Joe Kaeser. “We’re very pleased with Ivanka Trump’s visit and welcome her interest in learning about our professionally oriented training system – a system that’s been proving its value for 125 years and is cultivated worldwide at Siemens’ International Training Center in Berlin.”
Around 12,000 young men and women worldwide – of whom more than 9,000 are in Germany – are currently enrolled in training or two-track programs at Siemens, making the industrial company one of the largest providers of such programs. Due to the great success of the German model, Siemens is increasingly offering two-track training, which combines theory and practice, to young people in countries outside Germany, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South Africa, India and the UK. Siemens currently operates training programs in 20 countries.
These programs offer instruction in a wide range of commercial and, above all, technical fields – for example, mechatronics, IT, electronics and technical product design. Courses are constantly being updated in a targeted fashion to prepare young people for the challenges of digitalization, for example. Aspiring cutting machine operators, for instance, now also learn how to operate 3D printers.
The continuing education of the company’s employees is also a top priority. In fiscal 2016, Siemens invested €270 million in employee upskilling worldwide. For example, 655,000 employees are currently using a Siemens e-learning module. In fiscal 2016, Siemens Learning Campus – the Corporate Unit responsible for continuing education measures at the company – organized some 3,300 face-to-face seminars, some of which extended over several days. These seminars alone attracted a total of 61,000 participants around the globe.
Including its investments in training of €240 million, the company thus spent more than €500 million for the training and further education of its employees.
