Every autumn, Lerøy welcomes a new group of trainees to its head office in Bergen. The 15 excited trainees – all recent graduates – making up this year’s group have an instructive year ahead.This year, for the first time 10 of them are part of Lerøy’s new in-house trainee programme, Lerøy Trainee. One of them is Malin Færestrand Solberg, who is a trainee in development and data warehousing in the IT department.
“I see this trainee year as an exciting opportunity to learn, grow and lay solid foundations for my future career. I’m also looking forward to visiting sites, meeting new people and experiencing the company culture,” she says.
Malin applied for a trainee position because of the opportunities it offered to learn more about the exciting sector we operate in, and she wasn’t alone. With over 400 applications, Katrin Fallmyr, Talent Advisor at Lerøy, says the response exceeded all expectations.
“We had many strong candidates to choose from, and my impression is that the managers whose teams have been assigned a trainee are extremely happy!” says Katrin, who is also responsible for the programme.
Malin is thrilled to have made the cut. The job gives her the opportunity to work on what she’s most passionate about, namely UX design and front-end development.
“I’m happy to be part of a company that has made great strides with digitalisation and development in an exciting and innovative industry.
Now she’s looking forward to going on site visits, participating in seminars, forging new contacts and gaining a deeper understanding of how the company’s value chain works.
A kick-off is being arranged in the coming days to fire the starting shot for the traineeship year. This involves administrative tasks, training and guided tours, as well as lots of social activities. Beyond this, the programme includes three seminars, each dedicated to one of the Group’s three segments: Farming, Wild Catch, and VAP, Sales & Distribution.
“The Lerøy trainees will get to see and experience a wide range of things. The overall perspective they gain is one of the key benefits of the programme, offering them a completely unique opportunity,” Katrin says.
In addition to the seminars, the trainees will also go on various site visits during the year and at least one placement period.
“The idea behind the placements is that they move around and learn about different parts of Lerøy so they can gain an even greater understanding of what it is we do. This is something that will give them valuable insight they can use in their work,” Katrin explains.
Lerøy is a major and important employer for young people, particularly in non-urban areas. This was reinforced when more than 800 students from 12 different universities and colleges voted Lerøy as the most attractive employer in the seafood industry for the second year running.
“We’re proud of this accolade and very happy that students view the industry, and us in particular, as an attractive workplace,” says Liv-Ane Engelsen, Talent Manager at Lerøy.
As well as offering summer jobs and apprenticeships, Lerøy has long seen the value in a trainee programme. Since 2016, the company has taken trainees through NCE Seafood Innovation’s Seafood Trainee programme. This offers trainees an understanding of and networking opportunities across the industry as a whole, while the Lerøy Trainee programme focuses more on Lerøy’s own value chain and critical areas of expertise. In combination, the programmes boost Lerøy’s chances of securing the necessary skills for the future.
“On completing the trainee programme, the aim is to be offered a concrete position where they can use the experiences they’ve gained during the trainee period,” Katrin says.
Although the first cohort has only just started, Katrin is already well under way with planning for next year, and the need for trainees has already started to manifest itself.
“We have a broad requirement covering all areas within IT, sales & distribution, technical development, strategy, business governance and RAS technology,” Katrin explains.
