A big welcome to two new Lighthouse trainees

The Lighthouse trainee programme gives newly graduated Naval Architects from Chalmers and KTH the chance to spend a year in various maritime businesses. Now we send two new newly graduated Naval Architects into the maritime sector, Karl Laanemets and Egil Gustafsson.

Karl Laanemets from the town Strömstad is this summer finishing the master programme Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

- I found about the Lighthouse trainee programme from the previous trainees Lisa and Victor. We have all three been chairman of the Chalmers Naval Architecture Students Society and they really recommended the trainee programme. For me it sounds like a great opportunity to kick start my career, to be able to build a network and get experience from various companies seems like a very good way to become a skilled shipbuilder with a broad experience, Karl Laanemets says.

His trainee colleague Egil Gustafsson, from Norrtälje, has just earned his MSc after two years at the Nordic Master in Maritime Engineering programme, a joint programme between the Nordic technological universities and Egil has spent his time with the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, in Sweden and the Technical University of Denmark, DTU.

- I see this as an extremely good opportunity to learn about the industry, to get a good insight into the different players. Then I like the trainee concept, to be able to try out different tasks in a shorter period of time. I want to learn more about the maritime industry, gain expertise from the different companies and it is also about personal development, Egil Gustafsson says about his expectations for the trainee programme.

Looking for a maritime future
Egil is a skilled sailor and been competing in the World Championship in the off shore racing class ORCi. He will spend his year as a Lighthouse trainee with TTS Marine, SSPA and the Swedish Transport Agency. He will spend one month abroad in Korea.

- I'm looking forward to see the shipyards in Korea, where the shipbuilding is happening, Egil Gustafsson says.

Both Egil and Karl has their minds set on at future career within the maritime industry. Karl Laanemets will spend his year with Alfa Laval, Stena and Floatel

- Stena has for me always felt like an attractive employer, and Alfa Laval is a world leader in many areas, which of course is really cool! Finally, Floatel is a very exciting company which I have not heard much about before, so it will be a new and certainly a pleasant acquaintance.
I hope the trainee programme will give me competitive skills in quite tough labour market at the moment. I also hope that I can use the skills to contribute to a more efficient shipbuilding in my future career, Karl Laanemets says.

Text and photo: Andreas Kron
 Related content (UPDATE LINKS): 

• Trainee programme that strengthens the Swedish maritime industry
• Interesting start to Lisas year as a trainee
• Flow at Alfa Laval - a trainee's report