STATOILHYDRO is among the top Norwegian companies when it comes to taking on new apprentices from the length and breadth of the country during its autumn talent trawl.
A good 60% of them are offered an apprenticeship at one of the company’s onshore facilities, and almost 40% are given offshore assignments.
Many more females sign up to such programmes in Norway than in the UK. Indeed, women are much more a part of the Norwegian offshore industry than is the case in Britain.
This, in itself, is important when it comes to female school-leavers and graduates considering a career in oil&gas – it is easier in Norway than in Britain.
“The apprenticeship programme is important to ensure the expertise needs of tomorrow,” says Jens R. Jenssen, senior vice-president for corporate human resources.
“StatoilHydro finds it important to take on as many apprentices as possible and help them qualify for their certificates of apprenticeship. We therefore have a good tradition for taking on more candidates than the company needs for its own recruitment.
“Locally, we see a good interaction between our places of apprenticeship and the local schools, which provide us with clever candidates suited to our needs.
“Our presence helps stimulate the local interest in the various disciplines included in the programme.”
Jenssen sees StatoilHydro’s apprentice programmes as a long-term investment. Moreover, unlike a number of UK operators, the Norwegian group has not trimmed back.
The company has stuck to its guns instead of reacting in a knee-jerk way to the combined impacts of so-called global recession and seesawing oil prices.
“The number of new apprentices is on the same level as that of the past years,” says Else Sorstronen Amundsen, who is responsible for recruitment and head of the apprentice team in Bergen.
“I am pleased to note the good results of our effort relating to the apprentices, who see StatoilHydro as a good and attractive company for their training.”
Apprentices are encouraged to achieve both theoretical and practical competence to a high level, and StatoilHydro says many are offered jobs in the company.
In any event, apprentices who have passed their qualifying examination after completing their training in the company are entitled to a job in StatoilHydro for two years following their training period.
This ensures that they return something to the company and prevents poaching by competitors, which practice is endemic in British industry because of poor strategic planning in far too many boardrooms – including in the offshore industry. That said, the UK industry still offers better schemes than most. Moreover, time-served apprentices frequently get the chance to go on to further studies, including at university.
This is also the case at StatoilHydro.
Jennsen adds: “We also encourage our apprentices to continue their theoretical education and we have special support programmes for apprenticeship candidates who want to take supplementary studies qualifying for higher education in engineering or other disciplines.”
