UAE Youth Ambassadors experience

Aisha Al Zarouni, one of the interns and an Electrical and Electronics Engineering major, worked with the Siemens Energy Management Division in Germany to gain a deeper understanding of a real-life factory environment, technological advances, processes and challenges.

“The sites were very impressive. Every factory had something unique. I studied about transformers, but never imagined what they looked like in real factories, so visiting the transformer factories made me really visualize and connect the dots,” she said. “I think it’s very good for an engineer to see things, not just study them because it will benefit them when they work.”

Siemens’ involvement in the program started in 2014. Last year, the company provided 13 internships in Germany and the UAE as part of YAP. In 2015, students visited several Siemens locations in Germany, including a gas turbine factory in Berlin and the company’s R&D Centre in Munich.

“As the UAE builds a knowledge-based economy to prepare for a post-oil era, education and training are key components to transforming today’s youth into the leaders of tomorrow. Siemens’ continued cooperation with the UAE Youth Ambassadors Program seeks to support these aspirations and further the students’ participation with the company in various ways,” said Dietmar Siersdorfer, CEO of Siemens in the Middle East and UAE.

Yousef Khalil, a Mechanical Engineering major, interned with the Siemens Wind Power Division. As part of this internship, Khalil visited the company’s innovation center in Munich and witnessed firsthand the inner workings of a multinational corporation. “It was a really good experience. I liked the environment. The employees involved us in their projects and were very friendly, helping me fix things as quickly as possible,” he said.

In fiscal 2015, Siemens invested more than 500 million euros in training and development activities worldwide. This amount was divided into 242 million for youth training and education and 265 million for continuing the education of its employees. Siemens provided 90 internships and on-the-job training assignments in the UAE during fiscal 2015. Since 2014, the number of Emirati interns and trainees more than tripled.

The UAE Youth Ambassadors Program started in 2012 under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The program seeks to develop and prepare Emirati youth to lead partnerships with countries of strategic importance to the UAE and assume prominent positions in the country’s key sectors. Goethe-Institut is organizing the UAE Youth Ambassadors Program for Germany.

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165 years. The company is active in more than200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is No. 1 in offshore wind turbine construction, a leading supplier of gas and steam turbines for power generation, a major provider of power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2015, which ended on September 30, 2015, Siemens generated revenue of €75.6 billion and net income of €7.4 billion. At the end of September 2015, the company had around 348,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.