BINZAGR Unilever Limited, the Saudi Arabian arm of one of the world’s leading FMCG companies, held a Career Preparation Seminar at Unilever House in Jeddah to empower women and prepare them to join the workforce. The seminar comes in line with the Saudi Vision 2030, aiming at increasing women’s participation in the workforce from 22% to 30%.
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Participants registering for the seminar. — Courtesy photos
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The seminar held on Wednesday (Feb. 8) under the aegis of Unilever’s Fair & Lovely Academy, invited around 500 women and trained them on CV writing, interview skills, work ethics, job search skills, entrepreneurship skills, work/life balance, as well as emotional and social intelligence.
Drawing on Fair & Lovely’s global vision aiming at offering women opportunities to enhance their livelihood, the Career Preparation Seminar is also part of Unilever’s commitment to the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) that calls for growing Unilever’s business while decoupling the company’s growth from its environmental footprint and increasing its positive social impact.
It also advocates for enhancing the livelihoods of thousands of people through education, training, and business opportunities.
“We’re very pleased to be able to use Unilever’s influence to create effective channels that empower women by helping them enter the job market. Fair & Lovely is a brand that is about giving women confidence. It’s a natural extension of our brand values to give women new opportunities to grow personally and professionally.
“Not only is female contribution to the economy important to Saudi Arabia’s economic prosperity but it also strengthens social and family bonds. The Fair & Lovely Academy and the Career Preparation Seminar are part of our commitment to society as mandated by the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan,” said Sarah Al-Shohaib, marketing director personal care, Binzagr Unilever Limited.
Because Unilever believes in partnerships towards achieving sustainability goals, sessions were given by representatives from Unilever, Panda — the largest retail company in the region, Bab Rizq Jameel — the most prominent social enterprise for employment, and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI).
“We are proud to support the Career Preparation Seminar, and look forward to helping the initiative reach the right audience. As a brand, Panda has established tremendous consumer loyalty in Saudi Arabia, and we are delighted to be a part of this good cause.
“In line with the nation’s economic diversification strategy, the Career Preparation Seminar is a step towards improving living standards, empowering families to generate higher disposable income,” said Rania Al-Turki, chief human resource officer at Panda Retail company.
Binzagr Unilever Limited kicked off the Career Preparation Seminar with a welcome and introduction before Bab Rizq Jameel delivered a session on effective resume writing and getting through job interviews. The session also covered the work ethics needed for professional success, and a discussion on effective channels for job searching.
“We are very pleased at being able to collaborate with the Fair & Lovely Academy for the Career Preparation Seminar. At Bab Rizq Jameel, we believe in bringing about positive change to the lives of young men and women who seek a new beginning or an opportunity to grow in their careers. This initiative is very much in line with our aim of creating training programs and job opportunities,” said Rola Saleh Basamad, senior general manger for Bab Rizq Jameel.
Later in the day, a session by Panda focused on achieving a work-life balance — which is a concern for women in the Saudi Arabian job market. A team from the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce then took the stage to spur women towards entrepreneurship while advising them on the best way of starting up a business.
Unilever experts then delivered a session on the importance of emotional and social development in the workplace before the Seminar concluded with a consumer and shopper insight workshop.
The Jeddah Chamber works tirelessly to promote economic growth and national prosperity. Developing a start-up culture and supporting the SME ecosystem is a large part of that mandate; so is taking the message of economic involvement to creative and driven Saudi women who have the ability to make a positive difference to our society and economy.
With over 50% of Saudi university graduates being female, women still constitute 70% of the total unemployed force in the Kingdom. With this in mind, the Fair & Lovely Academy is gearing up to run women empowerment initiatives throughout 2017.
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of food, home care, personal care and refreshment products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. It has 169,000 employees and generated sales of €52.7 billion in 2016. Over half (57%) of the company’s footprint is in developing and emerging markets. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world.
Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan commits to:
• Helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being by 2020.
• Halving the environmental impact of our products by 2030.
• Enhancing the livelihoods of millions of people by 2020. — SG
