Petroleum Spirits
July 2007
Energised: Lateef and Owula are inspired by their internships at BP.
Two students of Computing from Lambeth College’s Clapham Centre have struck oil this summer by landing themselves valuable internships at BP’s UK headquarters in Sunbury on Thames.
Lateef Amodu and Owula Hesse are currently studying on the Computing: BTEC National Diploma and have been participating in the College’s Computing Career Academy. As part of the scheme students are given the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in the form of a six-week paid internship at one of a number of prominent employers during their summer vacation. BP employs over 96,000 people in 100 countries and produces 3.9 million barrels of oil per day for customers across the world.
Melinda Collette, Graduate Attractions Coordinator at BP, is responsible for attracting young graduate talent to the company in a range of different careers. She says: ”Lateef and Owula are two potential BP employees of the future. Working here for the summer will give them an insight into what BP requires of its employees, the types of work they can expect to be involved in and will present them with a bigger picture of the industry.”
The students have the pleasure of working in very plush open-plan offices equipped with the latest technologies. Both have been given their own workspace and are expected to work within the teams they are assigned to on a range of different projects.
Owula is made to feel welcome and appreciated within the HR team at BP.
Owula says: “I have been working in the Human Resources department and have loved every minute of it so far. I have learnt some new tricks with Microsoft Excel and Visio by designing flow charts and organisation diagrams for use in processing recruitment information. My boss, Adele, has been very good to me. She and the rest of the team are friendly, supportive and genuinely interested in making this a worthwhile experience.
Lateef is also enjoying his work. He says, “This has been a real eye-opener. When I enrolled for this course I didn’t expect to be turning up to work in such an impressive modern complex as this. I think that I will take away with me a good first impression of the world of work.”
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