Siemens Launches Sustainable Program for Integrating Refugees

Image Courtesy of Siemens

Today Siemens has announced that it will provide support and donations to refugees in Germany, totalling around 2m.

This support will take the form of internships to be offered at various locations, up to five days paid leave for certain employees to volunteer, putting on special classes for refugees and facilities to be made available for local municipalities to use as accommodation for up to 500 refugees.

This is a multi-stage, long-term program intended to enable refugees to integrate into Germany.

Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG said:

Siemens and its employees have already done a lot in recent weeks to help meet the immediate needs of the people arriving. Now we want to increase our commitment and make a long-term contribution towards integrating the people coming to us.

The classes will be for 16 refugees each, taking place in various locations around Germany. They will include German language lessons and are intended to lay the foundation for a successful career in Germany.

Janina Kugel, Managing Board Member and Head of Human Resources at Siemens said:

Were one of the largest training organisations in Germany and know what good training is. Through our European training program that we started in 2012, weve gained valuable experience in the training of young people from other countries. We can now make use of this experience to prepare refugees with suitable prior qualifications for their careers.

Siemens has a total of 10,00 trainees and university student in its programs. Of the 31 participants in Europeans@Siemens in Berlin program, of the 13 countries represented this year Turkey and Egypt are among them. Siemens will be offering internships to refugees still in the process of applying for asylum, hoping to take on 100 refugees over the next 12 months.

The company will also continue to promote its employees volunteering to help with refugee issues by providing paid leave for a total of five days a year. It has already made two vacant office buildings available to refugees in Munich, and is looking at providing facilities to house refugees in other cities.

This is in addition to the total of 1m in donations to support third party projects, specifically targeting projects which involve language and integration support.