Food and beverage company Nestlé is offering 100 young people an opportunity to join its newly established virtual internship programme as part of the organisation’s ongoing interventions aimed at reducing youth unemployment, across the East and Southern Africa region (Esar).

The virtual internship commences on October 1 and finishes on November 30.

The programme forms part of Nestlé’s Needs Youth Global initiatives that are aimed at creating and implementing employability programmes, mentorship and training initiatives that will equip the youth with essential workplace skills.

Nestlé Esar learning and organisational design head Desiree Zikalala says the initiative is important in bridging the gap between a required skill, job output and collaborative efforts by different role-players in mitigating this challenge.

“Unemployment is a global challenge and our region is no exception,” she says, adding that the most impacted demographic is young people.

In this regard, Zikalala points out that, according to International Labour Organisation research, globally there has been a 23% decline in working hours for employed youth, while 31.1% of young women and 13.9% of young men fall within the category of neither education, employment nor training.

Furthermore, she says one in six youth have stopped working since the Covid-19 outbreak.

Qualified youth from any higher education institution can register on Nestlé’s website, and successful applicants will be notified once the assessments and selection processes have been finalised. 

“In addition to receiving a financial stipend, this programme offers participants high tech-enabled learning and international skills transfers as they will be mentored by leading global experts,” says Zikalala.

Nestlé’s announcement coincides with the worldwide commemoration of International Youth Day 2020. This year’s theme: Youth Engagement for Global Action, seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes.