NIVEA: KEJAR KERJA APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM

Every girl/woman is different in their own way…. they can be demure by nature and some, pretty strong-willed in getting what they desire in life. These are normally the uniqueness of a person that can eventually determine what sort of person they will be in the future. So if you were to pair this inner strength with great opportunities, it would definitely equal a number of educated and skilled women for our country…

The NIVEA Kejar Kerja Apprenticeship Program is a collaboration between FORWARD and NIVEA to provide a platform for girls/women to have the opportunity to discover and polish their skills, enhance their personal attributes and secure an opportunity in the various creative industries in Malaysia. This project is further cemented with WOMEN:girls as the on-ground partner that targets the specific apprentice group for the projected outcome.

The best feature of this project is the actual engagement by the apprentices from the beginning of the recruitment day until the day they achieve the ultimate goal apart from obtaining inspiring inputs and empowerment attributes from NIVEA and FORWARD. The NIVEA Kejar Kerja Apprenticeship Program is helping to create the right pathway for the girls/women by helping bring out and demonstrate their full potential.

The NIVEA Kejar Kerja Apprenticeship Program will nurture and motivate these girls/women to excel to greater heights in order to improve themselves despite having the lack of support and the stereotyping mindset of society. 

NIVEA Kejar Kerja Apprenticeship Program targets girls as young as 18 years old who are living in Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) around Klang Valley and Selangor. This provides a better pathway for them to venture into their desired creative industries as well as reducing the shortages in talents and critical skills gaps in Malaysia. The selected girls were mentored by renowned entrepreneurs such as Chef Adu from The Canteen, Boryeong Mud Facial Spa @ Nu Sentral, Baba Can Cook from Limapulo, Project B, Souka Bakes, and NIVEA top beauty adviser of NIVEA.

This program was also facilitated by Christopher Ling and Firdaus Nisha each with their own forté to be part of the development of success.

Diamonds have to be discovered and polished to be able to see their true value. With that in mind, the NIVEA Kejar Kerja Apprenticeship Program thoroughly search and surface potential apprentices through on-ground research and surveys prior to the phases of Recruitment, Orientation and Apprenticeship. 

This collaboration between NIVEA and FORWARD reached out to 350 girls over five locations for the Recruitment phase over the span of ten days. The Orientation phase involves the shortlisted apprentices being prepped with the fundamentals of the apprenticeship of their choice in a training camp for this program.

The crème de la crème among these apprentices were then moved on to the next phase of the Apprenticeship after acing the interview with their mentors.

We got to meet the seven apprentices at Ben’s in Bangsar Shopping Centre at the Apprentice Announcement Ceremony.

NIVEA Kejar Kerja Apprenticeship Program covered weekly evaluation by the mentors with documentations of their apprenticeship process through videos of their journey and the testimonials from their mentor. Each of the apprentice were given a RM250 allowance every week during their apprenticeship. When they complete final week of the NIVEA Kejar Kerja Apprenticeship Program, these successful apprentices will be channeled for possible job offers and will get successful employment opportunities in these organizations.

I for one think this is a pretty amazing effort in helping those who cannot afford to further their studies because of lack of funds and support and I hope this initiative will continue in developing the less fortunate and help them get successful and great career opportunities in the future….