Nestlé to help 10 million young people access economic opportunities

Nestlé has 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.

Youth matters to Nestlé because it is at the core of developing thriving and resilient communities.

To date, we have offered close to 27,000 apprenticeships and traineeships and more than 54,000 job opportunities to people under 30 across the world.

We have also prepared hundreds of thousands of young people through readiness-for-work events and youth conferences.

In Central and West Africa, Nestlé has put in place a number of initiatives offering work opportunities to young professionals and entrepreneurs. New graduates through the Management Trainee Program in Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire have been trained.

The Technical Training Centres established by Nestlé is helping to develop and train young engineers in Agbara in Nigeria, andYopougon in Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, across the region, 140 young people have been provided full-time employment or internship this year.

Among the initiatives we support to encourage young people to start their own business, The ‘My Own Business’ (MYOWBU) street-vending programme and ‘pushcart’ initiative, led by our company’s out-of-home business Nestlé Professional, provide young people and adults across the region with the skills and expertise they need to run their own successful small businesses.

To date, more than 4,900 operators and vendors have taken part in both programmes in the region.