Addis Ababa – Seven female engineering students have taken the opportunity of a lifetime to join a trainee programme at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) in Ethiopia which will give them development opportunities and exposure to the company’s world-class operations, setting them up for future employment.

The students, from various universities around the country, joined CCBA in Ethiopia’s prestigious Women in Engineering programme, earning the opportunity to make an impression as potential future talent for the organisation.

“At CCBA in Ethiopia, we understand that our business can only thrive when the communities we serve thrive too. Investing in communities ensures our business sustainability. Most of all, we are all Africans and are part of our communities,” said MD Daryl Wilson.

“This is why we have made economic inclusion one of the pillars of our sustainability strategy.

“Our aim is to create greater shared opportunity for the business and the communities we serve across the value-chain. This is about more than the bottom line, because opportunity is not measured by money alone. Opportunity means a better future for people across the African continent,” Wilson said.

“CCBA has identified three under-served target groups for our economic inclusion programmes, namely women, youth and people with disabilities. We have also selected the two high-impact pillars of entrepreneurship and employability to underpin our programmes, and created a clear, specific set of impact measures by which projects will be evaluated.

“We aim to create inclusive growth opportunities for women, youth, and people with disabilities by defining a consistent way of implementing economic inclusion programmes across our markets, drawing on leading practice for implementing our programmes. At the same time, we seek to harness the impact of our economic inclusion initiatives to solve business challenges.

“Our employability programmes focus on programmes that up-skill, re-skill or provide other opportunities that enhance our target group’s prospects of finding sustainable employment,” Wilson said.

“The success of these programmes will be defined by the extent to which we boost income, unlock sustainable earning potential, improve skills, and business knowledge for our target groups, resulting in access to economic opportunities.

“Whether donating money, our time or our expertise, we take our responsibility to the communities we call home seriously,” Wilson said.