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Nestlé to help 10 million young people access economic opportunities

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Nestlé has today announced a new ambition for its global youth initiative: Nestlé needs YOUth. By 2030, Nestlé will help 10 million young people around the world have access to economic opportunities.

The global initiative brings together all of the efforts to support young people around the world that Nestlé undertakes on its own and with others, including the Alliance for YOUth.

In addition to employability, the initiative now also focuses on the next generation of farmers and entrepreneurs across Nestlé’s value chain. It also seeks to encourage innovation, including through a challenge on the HENRi@Nestlé open innovation platform.

Nestlé is backing up its commitment by being one of the first companies to join the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth led by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider made the announcements today in New York. He was speaking at events around the UN General Assembly week. He stressed that investing in young people is important to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, it is a far-sighted investment for companies as it boosts economies and businesses.

In the Middle East, Nestlé Needs YOUth impacted more than 5,000 young people in 2016 through initiatives that include:

  • The Nestlé Center of Excellence, a Nestlé training academy founded in 2012 trains university graduates in Saudi Arabia and Oman.

  • The Graduate Development Program, a three-year rotational development program that aims to recruit distinguished graduates from leading universities in the region in the fields of Marketing, Sales, Human Resources, Finance and Control, Supply Chain, and Technical.

  • Career advising, implemented by working with universities across the region to offer expert advice to students in the areas of readiness for work, employability, business and corporate environment, and leadership.
 

The region’s Alliance for Youth, launched in May 2016 to bring together entities that share the objective of tackling the Middle East’s 27% unemployment rate, is also well on its way to collectively hiring 3,000 young people and impacting 50,000 by 2020.

Read more on Nestlé in Society