Ineke Noordhuizen (25) works as a management trainee in Colombia.

“The international opportunities at Stork, the room for personal growth and the technical products were all reasons for me to choose a traineeship at Stork. I’ve now completed three of the four projects, and for the fourth project I’m in Colombia for six months. We’ve started a pilot project there to assess the possibility of using Colombian technicians because of the scarcity on the European employment market. As project leader I’m responsible for defining and carrying out the project. I’m not just looking for suitable candidates, but I’m also for example checking things like visas, salaries and pensions. I have a lot of contact with the project team in the Netherlands. It’s a great project to work on. And another benefit is that I’m learning another language at the same time. I already spoke a bit of Spanish, but I’m getting better all the time while I’m here. 

The great thing about Stork is that you can do all kinds of different things. You don’t have to go abroad, but it’s possible if you want to. I’ve had international ambitions for a long time. So I was really enthusiastic when I heard about the opportunity of going to Colombia. I’ve always travelled a lot, and Latin America was still on my wish list.

I’ve learned a lot in the past one-and-a-half years, especially in personal aspects. I always wanted to do everything myself, and to do it perfectly, so people sometimes found me a bit distant. I found it difficult to work on building up relationships, and people often pointed that out to me. That forced me to take a closer look at myself. I’ve now learned to be more open, and I’m very grateful to Stork for that.”