Correspondent

The ZF International Trainee Program, that offers college graduates an outstanding start in a career in a global company to gain hands-on experience in worldwide projects and grow with the challenges over a period of 15 months starting each year in October, has selected three students from India for this year's project, all from Pune. This is the second year this program is being conducted in India. Over 1,000 applications from engineering students were received out of which 300 students were shortlisted for the assessment rounds and finally three students got through the rigorous assessment to join a global mix of 25 international postgraduate trainees selected from Germany, USA, China, Brazil and India for 2012-13.

"The two main reasons for ZF to conduct this program in India are that ZF sees future growth potential coming from the Asian markets and the availability of a young, qualified talent pool is another plus point," said J?rgen Holeksa, member of the Board of Management and responsible for corporate human resources. The program spans over 15 and begins with an orientation week at the headquarters of ZF at Friedrichshafen, Germany. Post this orientation, there are four one-week workshops and seminars between the individual projects to discuss topics such as project management, communication management, intercultural skills, etc. The structure of the program provides for an individual and a team project.

"In the individual project, the student will work on four self-organised individual projects at four different locations, including one outside Germany. Each project lasts three to four months (1-2 projects outside the area of own expertise). In the joint team project, all trainees are assigned to a joint project which must be completed as a team within the time frame of the trainee program. A steering committee accompanies the group, which includes executives from within the company. Upon successful completion of this program these students will be given an assignment within the ZF Group," a press release stated.