Sixty-five students have been selected for the 2013 St Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) Summer Employment Programme.
Beginning in the early 1980s, the programme facilitates internships for students on summer vacation from secondary schools, the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, as well as provides employment for students on vacation from universities.
LUCELEC’s Corporate Communications Manager Roger Joseph says the programme is one component of the company’s corporate social responsibility thrust. He notes students also get an appreciation for the demands of working in an environment that places a premium on efficiency, and the company benefits as well.
“We also use the summer employment programme as an opportunity for the company to identify talented young individuals who later on may be interested in working for LUCELEC or who we may be interested in pursuing to take up employment at LUCELEC,” says Joseph, “and in fact the strategy has proved fairly successful for the company because a significant proportion of our existing management team wouldd have been through LUCELEC’s summer internship programme at one point or another during their school life.”
The interns are stationed in various departments across the company. Among this year’s group is Aidan Cox, a first-year journalism student at Ryerson University in Canada. Cox is hoping to put what he has learnt at college thus far into practice.
“I decided to apply for a LUCELEC internship because I was aware they had a communications department and I wanted a way to come home and make money doing something that relates to the programme of study I’m doing,” says Cox.
During orientation on June 3, 2013, the students were introduced to the company’s policies and standards, given an overview of the different departments and the company’s history. The orientation included a tour of the power station, giving them a first-hand look at the processes involved in the generation of electricity.
The students will also attend a workshop focussing on work place etiquette, rules of behaviour, dealing with difficult people, professional conduct and netiquette.
All students are expected to write monthly reports of their employment experience. For those on school internships, reports will be submitted to their respective schools.