Peter Bråten and Ylva Kristina Olsson

From Boston and Rjukan to Sunndal as trainee

Peter Bråten’s roots are in Ålvundfjord in the county of Nordmøre in the northernmost part of the Vestlandet region in Norway. He has completed five years of training at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, and has a Masters degree in Physical Metallurgy, as well as two years’ work experience from a metal foundry at Rjukan.

Ylva Kristina Olsson grew up in Stockholm, and holds a Masters degree in Technology from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, as well as a Masters in Material Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

Peter Bråten has works shifts in the casthouse. Ylva Kristine Olsson is taking part in a training programme, and will later join the metal plant at Karmøy.

“After training, Ylva will join the engineering staff in the Electrolysis department,” explains Bergitte Husa Kippernes, who is Ylva’s closest point of contact in the metal works in Sunndal, and head of the process technological department Electrolysis.

Bergitte herself came to Sunndal as a trainee in 1993, and in her view the trainee programme is a way of entering the company that provides a number of advantages.

Wanted to practise

NEW TO SUNNDAL: Ylva Kristina Olsson (left) . “ She will join the engineering staff in the Electrolysis department,” Bergitte Husa Kippernes explains. (Photo: Trond Aasland)

Ylva Kristina Olsson sees it as a bit coincidental that she got a job at Hydro, with Sunndal as her first place of work.

“With my background, I could have chosen a different career, but I want to be able to practise as an engineer. I also see an advantage in the way that the trainee programme provides flexibility,” she says.
 

Was it a big transition moving to Sunndalsøra after several years in Boston and New York?

“As a student I thought it was positive when I could live in a place where there weren’t any neighbours with windows directly facing mine. Now I have windows pointing in three different directions and can look out over beautiful mountains! One’s perspective is always important,” Ylva says.

Grasping the opportunity

Peter Bråten explains that one of his fellow students at NTNU has been through Elkem’s trainee programme, and recommended that Peter applied for the equivalent scheme at Hydro. He also considered the trainee programme two years ago, and didn’t  hesitate to grasp the opportunity this time around.

An additional two trainees have now arrived at Sunndal: Jana Hajasova from Slovakia, who has completed her doctorate at NTNU, and Oddgeir Furu from Sunndal, a finance trainee, but with a background in engineering from the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management at NTNU. Furu is working in the Electrolysis department. The trainees go through an 18-month training programme, and during that time they will work at at least two of Hydro’s sites.

Liesl Hellstrand, who is responsible for leadership development and recruitment, stresses that many different considerations which are emphasised when selecting new candidates for the trainee programme.

“Not only are we striving to professionalise the selection process, but we are also in a phase that demands great diversity in terms of competence, and corresponding flexibility,” she stresses.