Hiring the best trainees

Every year, a group of talented students is selected for the traineeship at Van Oord. Sandra: “We implement Video Intakes in the first step of the application, at the same time as their CV and motivational letter submission”. During their one-year traineeship, students get the opportunity to experience what it’s like to work at Van Oord. They’ll be working on their personal development and actively building a good network, starting with their trainee group, manager and business mentor. The video they submit during their application influences the selection process. Sandra: “How someone presents themselves and the effort they put in is an important factor when watching the videos”.

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Assessing soft skills

The value that Video Intakes adds to Van Oord’s trainee recruitment process is to be found in skill assessment. Sandra: “It gives a comprehensive image of the candidates profile. You can not only assess the hard criteria but also the soft skills”. There is as little as no drop-off by adding video in the application process and besides an improved candidate experience, it saves Sandra some time as well.

In the past years, the assessment of soft skills has risen in popularity. After all, many technical capabilities can be learned on the job, while things like creativity or collaboration are often more challenging to nurture. This trend is also confirmed by Sandra: “Video adds value to our assessment of soft skills, in some cases we can see a very high level of creativity by the video submission”. This aligns with their goal of Marine ingenuity, a skill to solve difficult problems, often in original, clever and inventive ways.

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