Frimley, 2013-Mar-11
- Siemens is ranked amongst the Top 100 Apprenticeship employers
- 100 new apprenticeship places this year across four sectors in the UK
- Investing in Higher Apprenticeships and Renewable Apprenticeships
- University Technical Colleges remain high on Siemens vocational agenda
- New STEM initiatives with schools – launch of the Siemens Education Portal
As a major engineering employer in the UK, with over 13,000 employees and a longstanding and highly successful apprenticeship scheme, there is little doubt that apprenticeships deliver value for Siemens. Siemens has around 300 apprentices already on its scheme and is creating 100 more places this year across its four sectors; Energy, Industry, Healthcare and Infrastructure and Cities. These much prized places include Higher Apprenticeships, and the pioneering Renewables Apprenticeship, which Siemens launched with the wind industry three years ago.
Commenting on the value of apprenticeships as part of a broader industrial strategy, Siemens HR director for UK and North-West Europe, Toby Peyton-Jones, says:
“Siemens was founded in the UK over 170 years ago with a pioneering spirit and is today still regarded as one of the UK's top engineering firms and apprenticeship employers. We have a longstanding and highly successful apprenticeship scheme, which is integral to our approach to training and developing our engineers and leaders of the future. Apprenticeships work for everyone and truly deliver results - for the employer, for the apprentice and above all for the economy and society as part of overall industrial strategy to provide well-trained and industry-ready employees.”
Siemens and other engineering firms are all acutely aware of the challenges faced by the profession in attracting new employees into the industry. A recent poll carried out by Siemens found only one fifth of parents would strongly encourage their child to work in engineering, with 14 percent of parents actually discouraging their children.* In order to tackle public perceptions of the industry, as highlighted by the poll, Siemens has acknowledged how important it is to target schools at an early age, by becoming the first UK business to launch an engineering education and careers portal for schools.
Launched last month, the portal will be rolled out to 5,000 schools over the next 12 months, and will also be showcased at The Big Bang Fair (14-17 March), which Siemens is sponsoring for the fourth consecutive year. Designed to inspire interest in engineering as a career, the Portal will allow teachers, students and parents to access a central hub of engineering information.
Siemens is pushing ahead with other vocational initiatives too, adding two new University Technical Colleges in the last twelve months in Lincoln and Sheffield to its existing UTC portfolio. Siemens also plays an integral role as one of six major UK engineering employers in the Talent Retention Solution, an employer-led initiative designed to attract retain and develop people and engineering skills that may otherwise be lost to the economy.
As Peyton-Jones says: “It would be hard to find an employer more committed than Siemens to nurturing engineering skills – across the board from schools, to colleges to universities, we are getting involved, investing and demonstrating the value of an employer-led collaborative approach to meet the needs of the future economy.”
*Survey conducted by TNS to 1027 adults aged between 16-64 polled in an online survey.
Contact for journalists:
Siemens plc
Rachel Odams
Phone: 07808 824209
E-mail: Rachel.odams@siemens.com
For further information and press pictures please see: www.siemens.co.uk/press
Follow us on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/siemensuknews
Siemens plc
Siemens was established in the United Kingdom 170 years ago and now employs around 13,520 people in the UK. Last year’s revenues were £3.2 billion*. As a leading global engineering and technology services company, Siemens provides innovative solutions to help tackle the world’s major challenges, across the key sectors of energy, industry, infrastructure & cities and healthcare. Siemens has offices and factories throughout the UK, with its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.siemens.co.uk
* Data includes intercompany revenue. Data may not be comparable with revenue reported in annual or interim reports.
About the National Apprenticeship Service
The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) supports, funds and co-ordinates the delivery of Apprenticeships throughout England. For more information about the NAS and National Apprentiiceship Week, please visit http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk
About Big Bang 2013
For more information about the Big Bang Fair, please visit: www.thebigbangfair.co.uk and for Siemens at The Big Bang visit: www.siemens.co.uk/thebigbang.
About the Siemens Education Portal
To see and interact with the full education portal please visit: http://www.siemens.co.uk/education
About the Talent Retention Solution
TRS is a not-for-profit sector-wide solutions platform representing an industrial strategy for growth by facilitating the ‘attraction, retention and development’ of people and skills across UK Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering industries TRS is driven by six major UK based engineering employers and is industry funded - Siemens, Shell, Rolls-Royce, Airbus, EDF Energy and BAE Systems. For more information, please visit: https://trs.wincon.co.uk/
