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Dubai, United Arab Emirates: For 40 UAE
National students enrolled at secondary and tertiary educational
institutes across the country, the summer of 2010 has been a period
of continued learning and personal development. The reason being
that the youngsters, aged 15- to 25 years old, participated in the
annual Summer Training Programme hosted by Dubai Aluminium Company
Limited ("DUBAL") - one of the world's largest single-site
aluminium smelters and the UAE's industrial flagship - as part of
the company's ongoing nationalization initiatives.
This year's programme ran for six weeks, from Sunday 20 June to
Thursday 29 July, giving the students the chance to learn about the
aluminium industry while benefitting from personal exposure to a
real-life working environment, through which they acquired
technical and practical skills and also matured as individuals. By
providing these opportunities, the programme has once again
contributed to the fulfilling the vision of H H Sheikh Hamdan bin
Rashid Al Maktoum (Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance
and Chairman of DUBAL) to raise the standards of professionalism
among young UAE Nationals as a means to accelerate the prosperity
of the nation as a whole.
True to tradition, the group enrolled for the 2010 Summer
Training Programme comprised both male and female students, 30 from
high schools and 10 from various colleges and universities. The
latter included university students on DUBAL's Scholarship
Programme who are contractually bound to work at DUBAL for the
summer vacation periods throughout the duration of their funded
studies (and for an equivalent number of years thereafter), thereby
enhancing their understanding of their future roles within the
organization.
After a comprehensive orientation session, the students were
deployed in various departments across DUBAL according to their
educational background and interests. Over the course of the
programme period, they also received instruction on technical
operations, and attended management skills development courses on a
weekly basis - the latter providing valuable life skills in the
areas of communications, teamwork, time management and leadership.
This year, for the first time, the working hours for the Summer
Training Programme were extended to a full eight-hour working day
(i.e. 07:30 to 16:00, Sunday to Thursday), rather than the half-day
of prior years - a move which was well received by both
departmental employees and the trainees. The programme culminated
in a ceremony on 29 July 2010, at which participation certificates
and gifts were presented to each student.
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