E&M and our people
World Youth Skills Day at KLM E&M
Monday, 15 July was World Youth Skills Day, one of the five Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) days highlighted by KLM E&M.
At KLM E&M, we strongly believe that young talent is essential for the future of our organisation to be sustainable. Which is why we put our future generation in the spotlight on this special day. In honour of the event, we interviewed six young talents at E&M. This article introduces Willemijn van Gijzen, Amir Badri, Kenzy Nieuwhof, Demi Tromp, Jeroen van Lier and Niek Beunder.
Let us experiment
Willemijn van Gijzen joined the Sourcing E&M team as a Flex Manager six months ago. In this position, she focuses on improving processes and achieving results. She says she has a great manager who gives her room to grow. She thinks this is important if you want to harness young talent as an organisation: “Let us experiment, learn and put our ideas into practice.” Willemijn gets energy from sharing knowledge and achieving results. “It’s great fun to see that you’re growing at work, accumulating more and more knowledge and therefore getting a chance to make more of an impact.” As a final tip, Willemijn says that you should seize all opportunities, surround yourself with the right people, take responsibility and stay curious. “There are so many opportunities, but you have to take the initiative to exploit them yourself,” she concludes.
Step out of your comfort zone
Amir Badri works as an Availability Controller at the Plant Supply Chain Operations in the Customer Operations team at Component Services. His talent is depth: “Dissecting a case in such a way - and going into depth - as to see problem cases and obstacles in a different perspective, which in turn generates new ideas to solve them,” he says enthusiastically. We make the most of his talents by involving him in projects that need a problem-solving approach. As a tip, he shares that you have to take the initiative, ask questions and approach people yourself. “That was outside my comfort zone.” He thus concludes: “Step out of your comfort zone, don’t be afraid to ask questions and welcome feedback. It’s not always criticism.”
Show yourself!
Kenzy Nieuwhof joined Line Maintenance Schiphol within Airframe as an Aircraft Mechanic 2.5 years ago. He likes to take the lead and is highly enterprising. By giving him space and clarifying his career timeline, the organisation can help him grow. He gets excited when achieving results: “If I change a part on an engine according to the manual and jointly test this part with a ground engineer and it performs as it should.” According to Kenzy, hidden talent is hard to see in the organisation: “Don’t hesitate to reveal your talents and take the initiative. Show yourself!”
Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Demi-Ann Tromp has been completing her studies at Engine Services since 5 February 2023. Commissioned by the MRO Lab, she’s carrying out an assignment for an application at Line Maintenance. She will start work at Airframe soon. Demi-Ann always dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Quite a challenge, so she set her sights on pilot training. Unfortunately, upper general secondary education (HAVO) wasn’t meant for her, so she decided to take an upper secondary vocational education (MBO) course in mechanical engineering. During her studies, she did a traineeship at INSEL AIR on Curacao, after which her passion for “maintenance and repair work” took off.
The airline industry was familiar to her. Demi’s grandfather was once secretary of Aeroclub and her mother and grandmother both worked as cabin attendants. “After my studies I want to start as a mechanic and become licenced. I’m enthusiastic about achieving this under the guidance of my KLM colleagues who have ample experience in the field,” says Demi-Ann.
Her final destination? “Operational leadership.” Sitting still is not for Demi, so providing leadership while also getting the job done seems like a perfect combination for her. To achieve her final goal, Demi-Ann hopes to take courses and work with a buddy system, where professionals in the field transfer knowledge. Learning new things energises her. “Sometimes what you envisage doesn’t work out, but nothing ventured, nothing gained!”
Just do it
Jeroen van Lier has been working as a Cabin Avionics Engineer at Cabin Engineering for two years. He likes to think outside the box; he has taken stalled projects within E&M and nonetheless moved them forward via an alternative route. “My talent is best utilised within the organisation by assigning me challenging projects to which I can fully devote my conceptual skills and energy to bring them to a successful conclusion.” Jeroen gets excited about sharing new skills with others so that they can improve as a team.
Applauded by the organisation
Niek Beunder joined Component Services in February 2022. He began with the Controlling team at CS as a Business Analyst. He was assigned this post by an external party. After a positive and successful year on both sides, KLM gave Niek the opportunity to grow internally into the role of business controller within the same team. “I get the opportunity to pick up topics I find interesting, that’s what gets me excited. If you want to delve further into subjects, that’s welcomed by the organisation.” In the future, Niek looks forward to growing within other KLM departments and expects the organisation to support him in this endeavour too.
We look forward to the great things all the young talent will achieve at E&M and are proud to have you as part of the KLM E&M family. We are E&M!
Learning & Development
The great thing about learning at KLM is that it’s not just about expanding your knowledge and skills, but also about discovering your own potential You learn new things about yourself and get the chance to challenge and improve yourself This way, you can not only perform your current role better, but also boost your own career and personal growth So, what are you waiting for? Get started on your personal development plan and discover how you can grow at KLM!
