Ordinary Teenagers, Extraordinary Results

In a small office lined with desks and computer stations, a dozen teenagers pored over paperwork and deliberated decisions, one young man zipping from table to table in a wheelchair. The young people, 15 to 18 years old, were reading, discussing, and evaluating job applications. On other days, they attended secondary school. But for more than half of each week, they worked – as apprentices here at Swisscom, Switzerland’s largest telecommunications company. Their current role was in human resources, determining who would be invited to sit for the five-hour exam that begins the process of selecting next year’s Swisscom apprentices.

I was visiting Swisscom to learn more about its remarkable apprenticeship program. The first thing these student workers told me, proudly, is that earning a spot there is highly competitive. (About 1 in 12 applicants are accepted.) Swisscom is the leading telecom provider in the country. In 2010, the company trained 813 apprentices, averaging about five percent to six percent of 19,500 employees. Swisscom’s apprentices are chosen from among 7,000 applicants each year. The application review process I witnessed was an initial step in sorting out who would join the company.

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