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Video testimonials
Anne-Marie O’Toole : Leon van Maurik : Aidan Corrigan : Richard Hyland : Craig McGarry
Anne-Marie O’Toole
It’s a very open culture
Anne-Marie O’Toole: My name is Anne-Marie O’Toole, I am currently based in the Lyon office in France and I came onto the graduate programme as Marketing Project Coordinator. One of the main points when I was applying for jobs was I wanted to make sure I was working for an Irish company with an international perspective. So when I found the Kingspan Graduate Programme it pretty much ticked all the boxes.
The training and development that Kingspan does for its graduates allows immediate exposure to senior management, even to the level of CEO. In the initial induction that we have at Kingspan Group, we meet the CEO, we meet senior management who give us an outline and exposure to all their responsibilities and what their division actually does.
Leon van Maurik
As a graduate you get a lot of responsibility
Leon van Maurik: I am Leon van Maurik and I am Marketing Projects Co-ordinator and I am based at the Holywell site of Kingspan here in the UK. Kingspan employs roughly 5,000 people divided over the five divisions and they are based worldwide.
The massive growth that Kingspan has experienced the last few years was tremendous and definitely opened up many possibilities for the graduates. As a graduate you get a lot of responsibility early on – an example for that is that I have project managed setting up the sales offices in Norway and Sweden where we had to get a Sales Manager, set up the office in a certain timeframe for a certain budget. I got a lot of responsibility in doing that, of course I was guided by senior management, but it was my project essentially.
Aidan Corrigan
Great opportunity to travel
Aidan Corrigan: My name is Aidan Corrigan, I am working for Kingspan Offsite and I am the Energy and Sustainability Engineer. I am involved in research and development projects offering the best low carbon technology solutions to our customers so they can achieve the best energy rating for their buildings.
In any graduate programme mentoring is crucial and being on the Kingspan Graduate Programme it was one of the things that is offered to you. Being on the programme there is a lot of early responsibility, so there is often times when you are in the deep end, but you do always have that mentor to rely on to help you, to pull you out.
Kingspan grows in two ways – it’s organically with the companies that it has already and also through acquisition and they do this in parallel with each other, not one company is growing and the other one is left behind.
The fact that Kingspan is a global company and that its sales offices and manufacturing sites are all across the world means that there is a great opportunity to travel within the company and working in various different places.
Richard Hyland
Kingspan is keen to fast track talented graduates
Richard Hyland: My name is Richard Hyland, working on TEK Environmental in Port [Unclear] and my job title is a Quality and Process Engineer. In the recent years there has been the building boom which has led to quite a few opportunities with Kingspan predominantly providing services to the building markets, they have also grown with the boom. With that, the company has had to develop and expand, which has made quite a few opportunities for everyone within the company but also for the graduates, if you are prepared to knuckle down and do the work that there are opportunities there for you.
As graduates, several weeks after we joined the company, we were all given an introduction to each of the different divisions, what they do and how they interact together. So they give you an overall picture of the company and in theory leave you that you are not just focused on your own division.
Kingspan are keen to fast track talented graduates through the development and training programme to help them meet the responsibilities which they will see in their job roles. Everybody that I have come across at any level of management is very open and approachable.
Craig McGarry
I feel that I am developing as quickly as I can
Craig McGarry: I am Craig McGarry, I am a Divisional Project Engineer working for Kingspan Insulated Panels. My role is to project manage various engineering works in the plant in Belgium. These works vary from small scale process improvements such as new machinery etcetera, which also would encompass large scale projects such as a line move, which I am currently working on.
The main attraction for Kingspan for me was that I had studied in France for two years and I wanted to join a company – primarily an Irish company – that would still have an outward focus towards the rest of the world and Kingspan gave me opportunities to travel, if I wanted to.
The greatest perk to my job is the fact that I feel that I am developing as quickly as I possibly can and that Kingspan is 100% focused on that development.
