Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (Dubal) said it has enrolled a group of 62 secondary and tertiary UAE national students for their annual summer students programme.

The two-month programme, which runs till the end of July, is part of Dubal's continuing nationalisation drive to improve understanding of the aluminum industry's workings amongst young UAE Nationals.

This year’s participants were selected from several educational institutions throughout the UAE, including various schools, Al Ain University, the Higher College of Technology, the American University of Sharjah, the American University of Dubai, Sharjah University, NIVE and IAT.

The group, which comprises 48 students from high schools and 18 from various colleges and universities, also includes students on Dubal’s Scholarship Programme.

The students, aged between 15 and 22 years, will all benefit from personal exposure to a real-life working environment during the summer programme, said a Dubal official.

'Our Summer Students Programme is aligned with the vision of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai, UAE minister of finance and Dubal chairman, who considers the initiative to be a valuable means of improving individual UAE nationals' skills, as a way of accelerating the prosperity of the entire nation,' said Marwan Al Sawaleh, GM human resources.

'We also use the programme to identify the students with the most potential. Many previous summer programme students currently hold senior positions within Dubal, where more than 70 per cent of executive management positions are currently held by Emiratis,' he added.

The training programme began with an orientation session, where the students were given a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to Dubal's major operations, including insight into its facilities (through a plant tour and viewing of Dubal’s educational film) and familiarization regarding the company’s Safety policies and procedures.

Over the course of the two-month period, the students will also receive instruction on technical operations, as well as courses in administration, Al Sawaleh said.-TradeArabia News Service