Siemens Seeks Apprentices From the Rest of Europe

After graduating from the National Technical University of Athens, Vlasios Ntizos spent months sending out as many as six résumés a day. His luck finally turned this year when he won an apprenticeship at Siemens in Berlin, beating out more than 1,000 Greeks to train for three years as an electrical engineer. “I guess I am one of the chosen few,” Ntizos says during a break from dismantling electric plugs in the sprawling training center at Siemensstadt, the company’s main manufacturing complex.

Ntizos, 25, is one of 29 European youths who were chosen by Germany’s biggest engineering company. It’s the first time Siemens has made a concerted effort to add foreigners to its crop of apprentices in Germany. The European debt crisis has sent a wave of job seekers to Germany, where a rigorous trainee system churns out a steady stream of skilled professionals. Recruiting foreigners promises to give German companies such as Siemens a halo as Europe’s largest economy seeks to avoid gaining a reputation for bullying laggards into austerity. Explains management board member Brigitte Ederer: “For Siemens, this is a small contribution against youth unemployment in Europe.”