Daniel BuenoAn opportunity has arisen for those who are in the last year of undergraduate studies, or completed them no longer ago than the past three years, whether or not they have a master’s degree, if they want to enter the fields of research, development, and innovation at a company. The Inova Talentos Program was developed by a partnership among the Euvaldo Lodi Institute (IEL), National Confederation of Industry (CNI), and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). As a trainee, the professional will be awarded a one-year grant to carry out a research project that had been submitted by the company and evaluated by the CNPq. Once a project is approved, the IEL announces the results and helps select the grantee, primarily by searching universities and databases of résumés.
“We are looking for professionals who are familiar with the project field. We want that trainee to acquire an understanding of business dynamics and logic and become qualified to hold positions as innovation manager and leader,” says Rodrigo Teixeira, executive manager of Company Development at the IEL. To that end, the company sets up an environment in which a tutor, a professional who is well-established at the company, will monitor the work of the trainee and pass along knowledge about the specificities of the technological sector and characteristics of the market. The tutor will then send an evaluation of the trainee’s performance to the IEL. “We want to use Inova Talentos to prepare professionals to understand the practical aspects of innovation,” Teixeira says.
Trainees are also taught how to behave during a meeting and how to sell their ideas. Trainees who have completed undergraduate studies receive monthly grants of R$1,500, while those who have a master’s degree get R$3,000, all paid through CNPq’s Human Resources in Strategic Areas Program (Rhae). Inova Talentos also allows trainee candidates to select the projects they want to work on. On the program’s website, www.inovatalentos.com.br, a candidate can look under “openings” to see a summary of all the projects approved, by state, for which a grantee has not yet been selected. During the first call for proposals held in 2013, 232 projects were submitted, 179 of which were approved, resulting in the hiring of 228 trainees. Each project can accommodate as many as three professionals. The second call for companies to submit projects for evaluation ended on June 13, 2014.
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