Martin Hottass, UK Skills Partner at Siemens, highlights the value of a high quality apprenticeship programme to workforce planning.

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Martin Hottass, UK Skills Partner at Siemens, who has contributed to development of the CIPD’s new guide on apprenticeships, highlights the value of Siemens apprenticeship programme.

Siemens was founded in the UK almost 170 years ago with a string of pioneering firsts including the first street lighting in Godalming, and the introduction of city trams. Today, our apprenticeship scheme upholds that same pioneering spirit and is focused on addressing today's challenges for tomorrow’s world.

The delivery of renewable energy sources, finding innovative ways of delivering sustainable healthcare and reducing the amount of cars on our roads through providing sustainable public transport solutions are the lifeblood of the Siemens organisation.

Apprenticeships have been the backbone of our growth. Planning ahead, we can help to close the skills gaps and develop our engineers and leaders of the future. Our in-house apprenticeship programme produces highly educated and self motivated employees who live the values of the company and who have a deep appreciation of engineering and what it can do to help its customers, and make a positive and sustainable contribution to the economy.

Many engineering business have found it difficult to attract candidates to their apprenticeship schemes in the past as school leavers were encouraged to go on to higher education and an apprenticeship was perceived as a second class career.

However at last the tide is turning for engineering employers thanks to a large extent to the development of University Technical Colleges and Higher Apprenticeships.

These offer a very good avenue for employers to engage with schools to ensure young people are well prepared for entering the world of work.

Siemens will introduce Higher Apprenticeship qualifications from September – we intend to offer 50 higher apprenticeships in England and Wales this year. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to progress onto Bachelor of Engineering courses once they have completed their Higher Apprenticeship which we anticipate to take two years. These new frameworks offer a viable alternative to going to university – you earn whilst you learn and gain invaluable experience on the way.

We have also launched a scholarship programme in Mechatronics which will see British learners be given the opportunity to learn specialist skills at our Training Centre in Berlin. This programme is pan-European and demonstrates Siemens’ commitment to offering a high uniform level of qualifications across all the countries it operates in. The scholarship in Mechatronics is the ideal preparation for a career in the Wind Industry as it combines Mechanical Engineering with Electrical/Electronics as well as Controls & Instrumentation.

Exciting times ahead – at long last, the stigma of vocational learning as being “second class” is turning – the best evidence of  this is the increase in the number of applications from well motivated people who are keen to join our programmes which typically run over three years.

We have always seen apprenticeships as a very important entry route into our business and many of our 12,000 employees have come through this route, some of them are now managing directors of our business units. They highlight  the true value of an excellent apprenticeship programme.

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