JEDDAH — As part of its continuing initiatives to support the local community, Zamil Industrial Investment Company (Zamil Industrial) recently welcomed a large group of university and college students in the company's training opportunity programs. Yaser Al-Saeed, the comapny's director of Corporate Human Resources, said the HR department provided on-the-job training opportunities for 35 male and five female graduates from Saudi Arabia's top universities and technical colleges as part of the company's annual summer and cooperative training programs. Students from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, the Technical Trainers College in Riyadh, Dammam College of Technology, Jubail Industrial College and Jazan University participated in the programs. To take maximum advantage of these valuable learning opportunities, the trainees were distributed among various departments according to their specialty. Students worked in the production, engineering, sales and marketing, information technology, and finance departments at Zamil Steel and Zamil Air Conditioners. Training sessions began in June 2013, with programs ranging from two months for the summer training students to seven months for the cooperative university students. The HR department coordinated in advance with various Zamil Industrial businesses to arrange appropriate project assignments and provided complete guidance and support for the trainees throughout their training sessions. Each university student received a SR 2,000 stipend per month, while college students were given SR 1,000 per month as an incentive to participate in the training program. The comprehensive programs provided trainees with ample opportunities to develop and sharpen vital skills, such as communication, creative thinking and problem solving, planning, time management, analytical skills, and teamwork. Students were encouraged to develop a positive work ethic, learn new skills in their specialized fields of study and interact with multinational professional employees of the company while gaining confidence in dealing with various work-related situations. — SG
