Hero Lager Partners With Universities to Tackle Youth Unemployment

In a bid to tackle youth unemployment in Nigeria, Hero Lager, a product of International Breweries Plc, has made significant effort to elevate the apprenticeship system and change its perception from a system for the less privileged and illiterate people to that of a business incubator that can significantly tackle youth unemployment in Nigeria.  

Working with a team of university professors, businessmen and apprentices, the apprenticeship system was understudied to distil the learnings and formation an apprentice acquires in the four to seven years of apprenticeship training. These learnings were structured into an academic curriculum which birthed the Hero Apprenticeship System. For the first time in history, this age-long cultural practice was formalised and introduced to universities.

Recently, Hero Apprenticeship System recorded its first set of university certificate recipients in Nigeria. The 250 successful candidates who were hitherto trainees under the apprenticeship system were awarded certificates from five tertiary institutions across the Southeast and South-South regions.  .

Welcoming guests at the certificate award ceremony at UNN, the Coordinator, Consultancies, Research, and Training, University of Nigeria Nsuka (UNN), Business School, Professor Chuka Uzoma Ifediora, eulogised the Hero Apprenticeship System for bridging the gap in knowledge acquisition.

According to Professor Ifediora, “By applauding the meritorious deeds of our trainees who reflect hard work, determination, and passion which are essential values for entrepreneurship, we encourage a growth mindset that promotes continuous improvement and excellence. Indeed, today’s certificate recipients are a representation of the culmination of hours of learning, exploring, creating, innovating, pushing boundaries, rising to challenges, and ultimately succeeding as today’s certificate recipients have done.”

Speaking about the initiative, Marketing Manager, Hero Lager, Dubem Orji, said, “Brands that have our scale owe it to society to contribute meaningfully in creating thriving communities. It is appalling that the apprenticeship system is being denigrated leading to its decline, and consequently, an increase in the rate of unemployment. There is a notion that apprentices are uneducated, and this has discouraged people from participating in it.”