Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia starts youth empowerment program

PanARMENIAN.Net - Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia has unveiled details of its new initiative – a 3-year youth empowerment program, aimed at coaching the young population and reducing unemployment rate among the youth in the country.

The project, hashtagged #DiscoverDevelopSucceed, offers life and business skills coaching for young Armenians both in Yerevan and the provinces.

“Youth unemployment is among the biggest problems nowadays in many countries. Unfortunately, Armenia is no exception. The situation is partially caused by the gap in qualities and skills required by employers and the insufficient practical knowledge young people possess. Being a responsible member of the community and one of the largest employers in Armenia, we find it our duty to contribute to creating more opportunities for young people to learn and realize their potential, especially for those living in the provinces”, said Christoph Speck, General Manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia.

In the first stage of Youth Empowered, program participants will acquire self-development and self-assessment skills, and will afterwards proceed to learning time management, project management, communication, negotiation and sales skills, business planning as well as financial literacy from professional mentors. Apart from Yerevan, trainings will be organized in Shirak, Lori, Tavush, Kotayk, Aragatsotn and Syunik provinces too.

“The labor market changes rapidly, while the field of education is one of the most stagnant systems as any progress is conditioned upon changes in people’s attitude. In this regard, cooperation of education with business environment and business structures is very important as the latter dictate conditions that the educational system must meet,” said Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Education and Science Davit Sahakyan, stressing the importance of the involvement of young people residing in the provinces.

Registration, coordination of training sessions, as well as all organizational works of Youth Empowered will be carried out by International Academy of Business. Registration of mentors and participants has already started. In the first year, the Program targets to cover over 2100 participants, extending this number to 8000 by 2020.

“Partnering with Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia in delivering life and business skills trainings for unemployed young people is in line with our mission of providing Armenians with competitive advantages to apply the best and most modern skills needed in the 21st century, guaranteeing their meaningful employment, ensuring growth of Armenia’s public and private sectors and strengthening the Armenian Economy”, said Araksia Martirossian, Founder and CEO, IAB International Academy of Business.

Over its 20-year activity Coca-Cola Hellenic Armenia has made more than 40 million euros investments, contributing to the socioeconomic development of the country. A large team of more than 300 employees is directly engaged in the Company’s daily activity, while more than 11.000 clients help deliver its products to consumers.