Maersk Drilling provided Thursday a report on the company's training program in Angola to develop local talent in order to support its operations in the country.

“The local content requirement in Angola is 70 percent local staffing, which is challenging to reach because the competency level of Angolan citizens has to match the high standards required to man Maersk Deliverer (UDW semisub)”, says Vladimir Volkov, rig manager on Maersk Deliverer, and continues; “accordingly, we have developed an Angolanization plan which focuses on training local talent”.

In 2013, Ana Santos was hired as a receptionist in Maersk Drilling, but after only three months she got promoted to HR assistant, aspiring to become an HR Advisor. Ana is born and raised in Luanda, Angola and holds a bachelor degree in Information Technology from South Africa.

With no previous experience in HR, a training program was created to ensure that Ana will be able to step up as an HR Advisor this year. The program is a combination of on the job training, and courses both locally and globally. Ana therefore went on a two week trip to Maersk Drilling’s headquarter in Denmark, were she got to meet the HR department, was trained in our company policies and core values and in our SAP system.

The trip was followed by a one week course in Brazil to give Ana various tools in regards to performance coaching, employee selection, organizational culture, etc.

“Ana quickly proved her worth and was promoted to HR Assistant, where she continued to work hard and evolve. Today she is first in line to take over from the expat who currently holds this position and lead the HR department for our Angolan colleagues,” says Vladimir Volkov, director, Maersk Deliverer.

Panda Antonio Sebastiao was the first local employee hired in Angola, and has since 2012 worked as an HR Assistant. Panda holds a bachelor degree in Enterprise Management and Organisation and is particularly interested in CSR & Local Content. After two years as an HR Assistant, Panda felt a need to develop further, for which reason he will be part of the CSR & Local Content team going forward.

“It is a dream of many young Angolans to work in the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group. The organization has a good organizational culture, but it is important to preserve and deepen our ways to bring a different dynamic and to face new challenges in the market regarding the training and attraction of new talent“, Panda says.