About 150 eleventh and twelfth grades students of Dimitrie Bolintineanu high school in Bolintin-Vale, visited several warehouse of seven tenants from CTPark Bucharest and CTPark Bucharest West. This project was created in order to support companies that operate in CTP’s parks to meet potential employees in final high school grades and to help students to understand that they have solid opportunities to find good jobs close to home. The next stage of this project will be most probably organized in Q1 2018.

The first phase was initially scheduled to take place on November 20th and 21st, but the term was extended until November 22nd in order to allow more students to participate at the visits. DSV, Network One Distribution (NOD), Cargo-Partner, Profi Rom Food, Ekol Logistics, Profi Rom Food, Lagermax AED Romania and Iron Mountain opened their warehouses to show students practical aspects of their activity and spoke about their job offers as well as details of the work in the fields in which they operate. This initiative has double purpose: tenants from CTP’s parks located in the Western part of Bucharest can have easier access to a working force insufficiently used until now and the future graduates of high school situated in the area learn directly from the source that they can find jobs in important companies and close to their homes. These companies are looking for young employees that they can form and they are willing to offer them the best working conditions and the chance to develop professionally.

 “We are doing our best efforts to give our students high quality education, but also to help them take the best choices at graduation. We want them to have access to good jobs in the areas where they live so they are not tempted to leave the country or to accept seasonal or temporary positions, many times with no legal forms. I think that school has also the role of guiding its students in their future professional life and giving them the opportunity to develop their practical skills and to interact directly with potential employers. During the visits our students were delighted with the experience and I was very happy to meet ex-school students of our high school currently working in CTP park“, stated Mrs. Ecaterina Ioniță, Economy teacher at Dimitrie Bolintineanu high school that accompanied the students during the visits.

Graduates of Dimitrie Bolintineanu high school work in both Ekol Logistics and Cargo-partner warehouses. They were reunited with their former teachers and gave the students details about their experience here. The future graduates found out that they can benefit from satisfactory salary packages and learn from experienced professionals, being encouraged to continue their university studies, while working close to home.

On the last day, the students visited two warehouses leased by Ekol Logistics and had the opportunity to learn more about various aspects of working in a warehouse from receiving the merchandise, the scanner’s role in managing the activity and forklifts handling. The company's representatives spoke about their programs to support young employees in order to develop professionally and to be able to work during university studies. Ekol Logistics also implemented qualification programs for high school graduates.

„Our company is in an accelerated process of development so we are hiring both in positions that require university studies, but also we need qualified and unqualified workers. Currently we have many young people working on our administrative and logistics departments and about half of our employees in CTPark Bucharest West come from neighbouring localities. We count on young workforce that we can form ourselves and we offer our employees optimal wage packages, development opportunities, and adaptable working hours in order for them to continue studying. 
Some of our employees went abroad with different university programs and we had the satisfaction of coming back to us. This is a sign that as long as you support your staff, you can increase your retention rate even on the younger segment where expectations and temptations, especially when it comes to finding a job abroad, are high”, explained Simona Nicolae, HR Manager of Ekol Logistics Romania.

"The first phase of our program ended successfully and I believe that it won’t take long time until the first positive results will appear: an increase in the number of graduates in the area who will find a satisfactory job near home. This project is in line with many other CTP’s actions aimed at supporting the local community. We want that through our presence in this area to bring benefits for the people leaving here both economically and socially by attracting investment, creating new jobs, industrial development, residential and transport infrastructure", concluded Ana Dumitrache, Co-Country Head of CTP Romania, the initiating company of the project.

This project is dedicated to support young graduates living in localities situated nearby the logistics and industrial parks owned by the developer in Western part of Bucharest. It will continue in 2018 with and increased number of participating high schools. In the future, CTP will organize together with a part of its tenants a series workshops where they will have the opportunity to learn practical aspects about what working in logistics implies. (source: CTP)