Thu, 03/19/2015 - 09:19

PARIS, France (2 March 2015)—Total founded the Young Graduate Programme in April 2014—an innovative initiative aimed at young graduates from more than 40 of the countries in Africa and Middle East. The program is an opportunity for them to discover working life through a genuine hands-on professional experience and gain an insight into how an international company operates over an 18-month period. "This program is visible and powerful evidence of our commitment in Africa and the Middle East, and of our willingness to tackle the concerns of these countries, as well as meet the expectations of young people living in them. For them, unlike young people living in Europe, finding an internship can be extremely complex—even if they have excellent university degrees. By giving them their first professional experience and their first taste of life in an international company, we are giving them a leg up the ladder and providing them with valuable support in establishing themselves on the marketplace," said Momar Nguer, Senior Vice President Africa/Middle East for Total Marketing & Services. The Total Young Graduate Programme is a structured pathway that recent graduates follow over a period of 18 months. It includes two key phases. First, the young people are hired on short-term contracts and receive training in finance, business or operations for six months at a Total subsidiary in Africa or the Middle East. Their performance is then assessed and if they meet the required standards, they are then sent to another Total subsidiary in the same region where they work for a period of 12 months. This way the Total group is able to ensure that each of the countries in Africa and the Middle East in which it operates is able to benefit from the expertise and experience that these young recruits have acquired in their own countries. "So far, more than 100 talented young people have joined the program, and around 20 of them are already in their second post, in a different country. The first months have been very positive and the program is proving tremendously successful—we have received nearly 10,000 applications. The program is set to be a long-term initiative; between now and 2017, more than 500 young people will have been able to benefit from this opportunity," said Christophe Mouret, Total M&S’s Vice President Human Resources for Africa and the Middle East.