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13 Young Engineers graduate from Atlantic Graduate Trainee Programme

 

With parting words of wisdom from some of the senior executives of LNG production company Atlantic, thirteen (13) young professionals with engineering degrees recently completed another cycle of  the Atlantic Graduate Trainee Programme.

This was the first time in the eleven year history of the Programme that all participants had engineering degrees.  The participants joined the programme  in 2016 and underwent two years of specialized on-the-job training, working in several areas of Atlantic’s plant operations, including Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE); Engineering; Production Operations and Maintenance; Production Optimization; and Technical Assurance.

At a special recognition function held recently for the Graduate Trainees, Atlantic CEO Dr. Philip Mshelbila encouraged them to build on the knowledge, experience and most importantly the values gained during their Atlantic tenure.

“The Atlantic Graduate Trainee programme is designed to foster an environment of learning and development; you trainees have excelled here,” Dr. Mshelbila said. “You were here to learn as well as to add value. We see that value in the impressive projects you worked on while you were here; many of you helped to inject new ideas and creativity into our existing work processes.”

Chairman of Atlantic, Gordon Deane urged the trainees to continue being willing to learn. “You are the future leaders and part of your job is to allow the leaders of today to guide you properly,” Deane said.

Sharlene Birmingham, Graduate Trainee in HSSE, said the programme helped to catapult her development as a professional. “These two years have been challenging and rewarding – the opportunity has allowed me to work alongside and learn from a great group of persons,” Birmingham said. “The programme provided both professional and personal growth; I learnt about myself and my capabilities and I gained so much exposure in the HSSE field and many of its intricacies.”

Randy Ramkhelawan, Graduate Trainee in Process Engineering said the opportunity to be mentored by experienced professionals was invaluable.  “We gained practical experience and enhanced our technical and analytical skills,” Ramkhelawan said. “Knowing Atlantic to be a philanthropic company, we seized the opportunity to develop our softer skills and become socially responsible citizens.”

In addition to exposing the Graduate Trainees to internal training courses relevant to the LNG and Energy sector, the Programme also gave them the opportunity to work on high-profile projects, including during maintenance outages when sections of Atlantic’s plant are taken offline for routine servicing of equipment.  The trainees were also tasked with leading volunteerism initiatives such as Atlantic’s participation in the United Way Day of Caring.

Created in 2007 as part of Atlantic’s commitment to help develop young local talent by creating opportunities for growth, the Graduate Trainee Programme has trained 139 university graduates from several disciplines. The next intake is scheduled for August 2019.