Honeywell Group partners British Council, LEAP Africa to train students

Honeywell Group has partnered with the British Council and LEAP Africa, a not-for-profit organization, to jointly organize a two weeks intensive corporate internship programme enabling participants from different secondary schools in Lagos to gain life-changing and career inspiring work experience.
The programme, tagged: “Fast Forward,” an initiative co-funded by both the British Council in Nigeria and the MacArthur Foundation, is designed to equip young Nigerians with required employability skills and plug practical-knowledge gaps using the work-based learning approach for 1,000 beneficiaries across Lagos, Rivers and Cross River States.
The initiative is targeted at students between ages 14 and 18 from public secondary schools.
Commenting on Honeywell Group’s decision to support the Fast Forward initiative, Juliana Esezobor, Head, Group Human Resources of Honeywell, said: “The Group’s involvement in the programme further demonstrates its commitment to promoting business orientation and education, especially among young Nigerians, similar to the Honeywell Excellence Programme and Honeywell Flour Mills Plc Baking School initiatives, which are platforms that help young Nigerians develop business management capabilities.
“We are interested in programmes and other social impact initiatives aimed at preparing today’s youth for future business leadership and, ultimately, economic development.”
One of the participants, Marvelous Adeleke, commended Honeywell Group and its partners for their contributions to youth development and capacity building, and enjoined other organisations to emulate the kind gesture.
Adeleke added that the programme was quite hands-on on personal and interpersonal communications skills, goals setting, innovation, problems solving and team building.
This pilot scheme of the Fast Forward initiative was designed to rally a total of 1,000 senior secondary school students from 20 public secondary schools across three states under the supervision of 300 teachers and school administrators.
All participating students had parental consent and were accompanied by a teacher (primarily for a supervisory role) in line with the British Council’s Child Protection Policy.
The internship programme was held from August 21 to 31.