Bridging education and work: the experience of Maccaferri Latin America

Maccaferri Latin America has always recognized the value of investing in education, by supporting young researchers and facilitating the entry of new profiles into the company. The collaboration with educational institutions has been crucial in positioning the company as an educational provider for universities, by offering them a formative on-the-ground experience to complete the student’s educational path. Furthermore, over the years, the company has adopted an effective strategy to talent acquisition by leveraging on the large pool of motivated students ready to enter the labour market. The company has managed to put in place a successful process to guide young students from moving their first steps into the workplace until fully mastering core competencies in the business environment. 

Firstly, Maccaferri Latin America usually opens new job positions on CIEE, a centre that provides integration between companies and universities; through this system, sometimes candidates are referred by other students, stimulating networking and the exchange of information about the company. Following the selection process, Maccaferri signs an agreement between the candidate and the university he/she is attending, in addition to granting a scholarship, for a two-year internship. During this period, the interns are trained to acquire technical skills in relation to different areas of the business. In this way, the company manages to create a heterogeneous group of employees and address the specific needs of the various branches. 

By adopting this recruiting strategy, Maccaferri Latin America can count on highly skilled professionals, working in the business for more than 20 years and having joined the company as students. All of them took the first steps in the Design Centre, led by Petrucio Santos. The Design Centre supports the LATAM region in all technical aspects and is also responsible for training newcomers who will then work in the areas requiring new resources. An example of how this practice has been so well established over the years is that nowadays most of the technical staff of the Latam CEO Alexandre Texeira is composed of people who followed this path, such as Fabricio Zambrotto, Latam Commercial Director, Paulo Ferretti, Latam Marketing Manager, Thales Silva, Brazil Commercial Manager and Ivan Masiero, Brazil Commercial Manager Civil Construction & Industrial Wire. 

This virtuous cycle of training continues to this day, benefitting the company in several ways: talent investments are a key lever designed to protect the organization’s long-term growth capabilities; the overall employees’ turnover has a very low rate and Maccaferri Latin America is deemed as attractive by new generations of engineers, ensuring them a career path.