Internationally, young people are facing a number of major challenges when it comes to securing a career. There are currently around 73 million unemployed young people across the globe.

Locally, the situation is different and unemployment isn’t a critical issue as such. What is a challenge, though, is the skills gap – which is one of the highest in the EU. In fact, as confirmed by Education and Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo, “jobs are being created but there aren’t enough skills to match the demand”.

This is where internships come in and, transnationally, Nestlé is playing an important role by creating internship programmes that provide young people with the skills they need to be successful in current and future labour markets. Through the company’s global Needs YOUth Programme, Nestlé is planning to play a significant role in tackling and bridging the skills gaps.

The programme is the result of years of study within Nestlé’s human resource departments, wherein both intern needs and industry requirements were assessed in detail. The outcome is the 70-20-10 learning and development model, through which interns obtain 70 per cent of their knowledge from job-related experiences, 20 per cent from interaction with others and 10 per cent from formal educational events.

It is an example of how internships provide real work exposure experience, by placing them in front of real business cases and giving them on-the-job challenges that they can solve while under progressive and guided supervision.

There are currently around 73 million unemployed young people across the globe

However, it is understandable that some young people might be wary of internships, as, over the years, some companies have taken advantage of their interns. Our intern programme on the other hand is designed and built around the needs of students, as opposed to the other way round. For instance, we offer a full-time internship over the summer period, with part-time flexible opportunities over the winter season. This enables interns to keep in touch with the company all year round, which gives them insight into the complete business cycle at Nestlé. 

To help achieve this, each trainee joins the company in a specific department and is assigned a mentor. Each mentor will only have one trainee at a time, so as to ensure they focus their coaching and mentoring efforts in the most effective way possible. To facilitate this, the company has invested time, effort and resources on training young people from the University of Malta, Mcast and other local colleges, and developing them over time. It has focused on exposing them to different challenges, so as to ensure they are set on the path towards a successful career as quickly and effectively as possible.

Over the last four years, Nestlé has given employment opportunities to over 50 young people, 14 of whom took part in the programme described above. One person who has experienced the benefits of this is Charmaine Falzon, who joined the group as a marketing trainee two years ago, while in her first year at University. As a young adult, she wanted to experience the real world of business and liked the fact that Nestlé would help to train her in a field she was interested in, while also remunerating her for her work.

“The most important thing I have learnt is how to work in a business environment; it’s education you simply won’t get from a textbook,” she says.

In her time on the programme, Charmaine has had the opportunity to work on various campaign and projects that, today, she says she is very proud of. For instance, she has organised events, planned in-store and outdoor promotions across the island and helped to build and establish the digital presence of one of Nestlé’s brands.

“Above all else, I think being an intern here has helped me to move out of my comfort zone, boosted my confidence and unlocked my true potential,” she says.

“It has also helped me build relationships that will doubtlessly prove useful in my career, whether with stakeholders, clients, media agencies or local authorities.

“As a result of all this, I strongly recommend the programme. It is an opportunity that needs to be embraced as it could really kickstart your career by providing you with a new perspective of the industry you are studying and setting you on the right direction for your career.”

Nestlé Malta is now looking for more talented and dynamic students eager for a genuine professional experience to join the programme and experience the benefits of a quality internship. The result will be a hands-on adventure for individuals who possess autonomy, the ability to work with minimum supervision, with good communication skills, and for those able to develop good working relationships with both customers and colleagues. It is a programme that works very successfully all over the world, and one that we are eager to keep growing here.

Federico Milanetti is Nestlé HR Business Partner.