Cultivating talent and passion in the agri-tech ecosystem: DAS’ Intern and Trainee Programmes
Yara Digital Ag Solutions (DAS) runs internship and trainee programmes at our Singapore and India Digital Hubs throughout the year. In the last 4 years, we have hosted more than 200 interns across our Hubs, in roles such as UX, software engineering, product management, Agile, data analysis and marketing.
Why do we hire so many interns? The answer is simple: we value mentoring and developing talent, and want to welcome young professionals into the digital agricultural space.
Food security and sustainable food production are top of mind as we strive to feed a growing population in ways that protect the environment.
In Digital Ag Solutions, we are building digital products that help farmers improve crop yield and quality, optimise the use of inputs, reduce emissions, and have better connectivity to peers, knowledge and markets.
Given that there are very few people with both agricultural experience and digital product development skills, we are committed to hiring and training people over the long term.
Traineeships
Our traineeship programme is designed for fresh graduates or mid-career switchers, and is intended to lead up to a full-time role. Trainees join for 6 months in Singapore, and 12 months in India.
Hiring trainees allows DAS to develop a talent pipeline and identify suitable employees for the organisation. Almost all our trainees continue their careers with Digital Ag Solutions.
Managers work with trainees to find the right courses, workshops and certifications so they can pick up new skills and are prepped for an associate role.
Apeksha DL, who joined our India Digital Hub Hub as a Trainee Engineer in 2020, trained in different domains like product engineering, data engineering, quality testing and DevOps over the year.
She took on many assignments, which were assessed constantly to push her learning. This gave her the confidence to take on projects after the trainings.
When they complete their traineeship, individuals are promoted to a suitable position based on their demonstrated skill and experience.
After training in different domains across a year, trainees are allowed to indicate their preferred domains. Apeksha says that this allowed her to think about what she is good at, and capable of achieving.
She now works as an Associate DevOps Engineer — her top choice — supporting solution infrastructure development.
“What I like the most about my role is when I am facing a problem I have never solved before, so off I go to learn new skills and work with the people across the company to come up with a solution. One of the things that makes Yara one of the best places to work is the people you work with. Yara is one of the best places where you could possibly kick-start your career.”
Internships
Our internships are open to full-time students and individuals waiting to commence their undergraduate education. Though interns usually come on board for 3–6 months, they are vital contributors to our teams, and sometimes end up joining DAS full-time.
Apple Lee, who is now an Associate Product Owner in the Scalable Agri-tech (SAT) team, first joined DAS as a Project Management Intern. She graduated from Singapore’s National Technological University (NTU) in 2019 as a Chemistry and Biological Chemistry major.
During her internship, she supported a soil texture detection hardware project targeted at smallholder farmers, and also conducted technology and market research.
After her internship, she continued as a Project Management Trainee, before being promoted to an Associate Product Owner in January 2021.
In her current role, she works between Yara’s Agronomy, Research & Development (YARD) function and DAS’ product teams to deliver Minimum Viable Prototypes (MVPs), and drives project roadmaps and stakeholder management.
“The internship and traineeship provided the platform to equip myself incrementally with the relevant knowledge and experience to incorporate user centricity in product ownership while growing my technical know-how to steer the product in the right direction.”
Making a Difference
Our interns and trainees have the opportunity to work on challenging and meaningful projects that solve real-world problems.
As Apple articulated, “Through the internship, I saw the impact and potential of digital transformation in agricultural scene. Working on these projects opened my eyes to how innovations can be ideated and delivered to add value to farmers, growing my interest in such technology.”
Similarly, Apeksha said, “I love that I share Yara’s vision of world without hunger. Yara cares about equality and I am inspired and motivated to learn new things every day and innovate at work.”
