Ferrero Group Luxembourg to fund students and offer internships

Ferrero Group in Luxembourg has signed a partnership agreement with the University of Luxembourg to fund Master's students during their studies and offer internship programmes.

The Ferrero Fellowship Programme allows up to five students in the field of law, finance, economics or entrepreneurship and innovation to receive a monthly stipend for the duration of their Master's degree.

The group, which has been in Luxembourg for more than 40 years and whose brands include Ferrero Rocher, Kinder, Nutella and Tic Tac, is also offering an internship programme and a partnership PhD programme as part of the agreement.

"In the past few years we decided to concentrate all the control functions here," Ferrero Headquarters HR Director, Bruno Conti, said at a conference on Tuesday. "In 2010 we had 400 employees, now we have more than 1,100.

"We have financial, legal, marketing, supply chain and IT functions and one of the biggest functions here is finance.

"We are looking to attract talent from everywhere and want to give students a local career and the chance to go on assignments around the world."

The programmes will give students the chance to discover more about the company's economics, finance and legal departments.

The internship programme is a chance for Master's students to gain experience and the partnership PhD programme allows PhD candidates to carry out research close to industry as well as enabling suitable candidates from Ferrero to pursue a PhD at the University of Luxembourg.

The funding for Master's students varies but should be enough to cover accommodation costs.

Teaching staff at the University will also be strengthened through practitioners from Ferrero teaching select classes in relevant disciplines.

"This is a model that we have never had before," the University's Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance Dean, Professor Stefan Braum, said. "I hope this will be an example for future co-operations."

(Heledd Pritchard, heledd.pritchard@wort.lu, +352 49 93 459)