Over the years, we have also actively advanced the curricula for a number of different job qualifications – curricula designed to communicate not just important technical knowledge, but also a broad range of valuable organizational, social and cross-cultural competencies. Siemens occupational training programs are also open to other companies. They can choose to have their employees trained completely by Siemens or can opt to omit specific training modules if they prefer.

We have created a new form of tuition in Germany for secondary school students who choose to prepare for a career in IT rather than pursue a conventional university degree. With the Siemens Live Learning program, they can acquire the theoretical knowledge they need while at work: A live link to tuition staff enables them to complete class work from a desktop computer.

We often "export" Germany’s style of dual vocational system, with its combination of classroom training in technical college and practical, hands-on training in industry, to our Regional Companies, where it helps to raise qualification levels among employees and to increase the quality of local content. In 30 countries in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa, around 4,000 apprentices are currently taking part in locally aligned training programs to acquire the skills they need for a particular trade or occupation.

Siemens’ joint ventures in China have been operating three-year vocational training programs since 1996. To date, 380 young people have completed programs at the Siemens Vocational Training Centers in Beijing and Shanghai to qualify as mechanical engineers, electronics engineers, mechatronics engineers, and power engineers.

The training offered in China is modeled on Germany’s dual vocational system and adapted to the needs of industry in China. Apprentices receive theoretical training in Chinese vocational schools, complete practical labs at the Vocational Training Center in Shanghai, and gain hands-on work experience at Siemens’ joint ventures throughout the program.

To streamline our training offerings and to gear them more closely to our actual needs, we merged our employee and management competency building and development programs into a single service unit, Learning Campus (LC). LC’s education and training programs interlock tightly with our three company programs, Innovation, Customer Focus, and Global Competitiveness. This enables employees to align their skills and competencies more specifically with the company’s strategic goals.

All of Siemens’ operating Groups are involved in this company-wide initiative. The Groups’ immense wealth of experience has been aggregated to create a foundation for a worldwide best practice training program aligned with its target groups’ needs. Besides classic one-on-one training, LC is now offering more team, department and org unit training programs on key topics of relevance for the company. This approach pays a dividend by enabling us to share and transfer knowledge much faster than before.

Our worldwide training program for managers teaches high potentials to collaborate on a cross-border basis. The modular seminar program, now offered in more than 45 countries, has proven to be exceptionally successful. For example, Siemens in China last year reported its one-thousandth management training graduate.

Strong financials, motivated employees, enthusiastic customers, and efficient processes – these are the goals we expect our managers to meet and that we use to gauge their performance. Each year, our employees provide us with feedback on how successful those who lead them have been at inspiring and encouraging them to deliver top-class performance. Those Siemens operating units that have systematically made leadership an integral part of their business strategy have proven especially effective at this.