Trainees more international

Ten of this year’s 24 recruits to Statoil’s trainee programme come from outside Norway, reflecting the international commitment being made by the group.

Hailing from Algeria, Russia, Venezuela, Azerbaijan, Iran, Germany and the UK, they represent the largest-ever annual intake of non-Norwegians to the programme – one of Norway’s biggest.

“Working in Statoil has been very good so far,” says 25-year-old Venezuelan Irina Romero, who studied geophysics and has a master’s degree in geology.

“Making contact with people is easy, and my colleagues are helpful. This traineeship offers me good opportunities for personal development.

“I come from a country with a long oil history. One reason I wanted to work for Statoil is that it shows concern for society.”

Statoil has big ambitions for its operations outside Norway, observes Jens R Jenssen, executive vice president for corporate human resources at the group.

“This means we need to build up a more international organisation than we have at present. One tool for achieving that is active use of the trainee programme.

“The latter is intended to help safeguard our long-term expertise requirements within specified disciplines.”

Created in 2001, Statoil’s programme for corporate trainees has been voted the most popular of its kind among Norwegian students and attracted many applicants both last year and this.

The trainees spend two years gaining detailed knowledge of the group’s value chain through work experience in various parts of the business as well as learning modules and mentoring.

“We’re pleased that so many people want to work for us, and feel we’ve secured an interesting and varied group of trainees this year,” says Mr Jenssen.

“But we must never rest on our laurels. We have to do our utmost every day to ensure that we remain a desirable place to work, which attracts the best candidates.

“We run a demanding, value-based business which is wholly dependent on a very competent organisation to succeed.

“We compete with the best in the business, and have to work actively all the time to meet our broad requirements for expertise.”