Skills for a resilient youth

World Youth Skills Day 2020 takes place in a challenging time for young people.

Even before Covid-19, young people (aged 15-24) globally were three times more likely than adults to be unemployed, according to the UN. Today, Covid-19’s economic impact means that jobs are becoming scarcer and unemployment higher. Schools, universities and training institutes have closed or are offering limited services online, hampering the young from gaining the skills they need to get jobs.

Yet the pandemic has created the need for even more skilled younger people, to contribute to the recovery and innovate for the future normal. We believe it is the right time for organizations to step up and support them as much as possible. Even in these uncertain times, we are indeed still hiring and constantly looking out for new talents.

At Software AG, we have a long history of nurturing and hiring young people, and we see this as even more important now. With our programs we help them gain the skills, experience and confidence they need to succeed – even in a difficult job market.

Brazil

Our internship programs for students (20-24 years old) are a very important step in their preparation for their professional lives. The programs at Software AG may last up to two years, and we see them as the best way to get young talents onboard, having sufficient time to follow up the students’ development and potential.

Bulgaria

Sharing knowledge and helping young students and graduates to accelerate their future is a key to quickly growing new talents for Software AG in Bulgaria. We have trained 126 students in the past 13 years – 57% of whom still work for Software AG! Some even have 10 years in the company.

Germany

In Germany we have an extensive cooperative internship/ dual study program for IT and Business Administration, where Software AG is the practice partner. Most recently, three Darmstadt-based apprentices completed their training and were taken on under permanent employment contracts.

“I am very grateful for all the good experiences I have had here, and for all the colleagues who made this time unforgettable.” Kayla Gerritzen, Certified Office Manager.

We also train Azubis (apprentices, trainees), run a “Girls’ Day” program every year to get more girls into technical jobs, and offer the Calliope mini project to get primary-school kids interested in programming.

India

“Internships are so important for young graduates like me, because they give you the chance to take part in meaningful work experience and help you decide on the career path. The major part of having an internship is learning more about the field as well as your personal strengths and weaknesses.” Rameshanan Madhur Vasudevan, intern since December 2019.

In India we have 130 employees who are below the age of 25, which equates to youth being 12% of our work population. Most of this young population is fresh out of campus. We are a teaching organization with a strong set of experienced and talented workforce who nurture and bring out the best in them.

One of our 2017 campus hires, Manvi Batra, sums up just how important skills are to the young worker: “Skills make you independent. Skills make a person self-reliant. The ability to work makes an individual more productive and progressive. You can never over-invest in learning skills. These are the bread and butter of a well-functioning society.” 

UK

In the UK, we recruit for candidates both living in the UK and from other countries to give them some international experience. For those in a non-English speaking country, it gives them a chance to use the English language in a working environment. We want to give them an insight into the working world and use what they have been learning and apply that knowledge in a real environment.

“I’m interning with the Cambridge office which works on Apama. I have been assigned a project to build an IDE extension to support the new testing features that are being designed for Apama. The aim is to help Apama developers to test their instance more easily. I am learning about the Apama/Cumulocity IOT products as well as Typescript and the vscode api.”

Yoav Nir

USA

A recent example of our intern program in the US is Taylor Green, is a senior marketing major at James Madison University in Virginia. She is currently a Global Event Marketing Intern at Software AG and works with the Global Events team located in Reston, VA and Germany to plan and execute various events. She chose to work at Software AG because of the culture of the company and the positive direction the company is heading. Taylor hopes to gain useful experience in events marketing to bring to her future marketing

Career advice

I believe internship programs provide the foundation of a great career. There are other things you can do, too, to ensure your career is resilient – even in the face of challenges like today’s.

1. Work in different industries. You never know what will feel “right” – for me, the technology industry is “home.”
2. Work at HQ, for sure, but make sure to get some field experience too. Ask for a month-long (or longer) job swap with someone in another office. Shadow salespeople to see what they do every day. Get out and learn.
3. Be brave – embrace every challenge. Face change head-on, be proactive in choosing the direction YOU want to head in your job.
4. If you make mistakes, which are part of life, you need to learn from them. Get back up again and grow in your career.
5. Seize the opportunity to work abroad and grab the chance to learn from different cultures. Never assume you “know it all” because you know how it works in one country.

We take young talent seriously.

Join us and you will also see just how far you can go at Software AG!