The Aboitiz Group is urging college students around the country to participate in the 8th Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit (AFLBS) to be held August in Cebu City.
The summit is one of the programs under the Aboitiz Future Talents Program, which accepts interns and scholars on a yearly basis.
Future Talents Program helps students enter the corporate world through internship and on-the-job (OJT) training, said Txabi Aboitiz, senior vice president and chief human resource officer of the Aboitiz Group, during a luncheon meeting last Feb. 7 at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel with the representatives from partner universities, such as the University of San Carlos, University of San Jose Recoletos, University of the Philippines Cebu, Cebu Institute of Technology-University, Cebu Normal University, University of Cebu, University of the Visayas, Southwestern University and University of Southern Philippines Foundation.
Aboitiz emphasized that most of the students are unprepared to enter the business world because although they have the theory, they don’t have the experience. “That’s why we came up with this program to help the students earn experience through internship and OJT,” Aboitiz said.
The Aboitiz Group will assess the performance of on-the-job trainees and determine those who are qualified to work in their company after graduation.
“It is also up to the students to decide whether our organization is the one that they want to work for,” Aboitiz said.
He said that before most of the companies were willing to invest in hiring fresh graduates, but that trend has shifted. Today, some companies won’t hire fresh graduates because they would just earn an experience and later transfer to another company.
Aboitiz told school officials “the purpose of the program is to partner with you and open opportunities for your students to gain experience while studying at the same time.”
During the luncheon meeting, Aboitiz Equity Ventures talent attraction manager Valerie Cruz also presented on screen projects under the Future Talents Program, such as the Jon Ramon Aboitiz Lecture Series, Aboitiz College scholarship and Aboitiz Future Leaders Summit.
Cruz said last year’s summit held Aug. 17 and 18 at Radisson Blu was attended by 89 delegates.
Cruz said this year’s summit will be held again in Cebu City on Aug. 16 and 17 with 90 delegates.
“By giving them this opportunity, we hope that the participants will also do their share to help the younger generation become future leaders,” Aboitiz said.
The Aboitiz Group has crafted activities that will hone the participants’ skills in nation building.
This year’s summit theme is “Significantly changing my Philippines.” Delegates will participate in plenary discussions, games and team-building exercises that simulate real work and business situations.
Participants must be Filipino citizens, not more than 25 years old at the time of the summit, and an incoming third or fourth year student (for 4-year course) or 4th or 5th year student (for 5-year course) taking up Business Management, Accounting, Communications, Political Science, Information Technology, Marketing, Finance, Engineering, Psychology, Economics and Law.
The deadline of applications for the Future Leaders Summit and the College Scholarship program is on March 22.
For further information, visit website careers.aboitiz.com or like Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit on Facebook. /PR with Editorial Assistant Tito P. Tan