The Seprod Board, led by Chairman PB Scott, approved an annual internship programme which will see manufacturing entities within the Seprod Group hiring young Jamaican graduates from local and overseas educational institutions for one year.

The graduates will gain practical work experience in their areas of studies giving them a launching pad to jump-start their career aspirations, according to a recent news release.

The Group welcomed its first batch of interns on Monday. The group of 25 includes graduates from the College of Agriculture, Science & Education, University of the West Indies, University of Technology and the Caribbean Maritime Institute. The range of disciplines includes electrical and mechanical engineering, food safety, food service management, culinary arts, agriculture and agro-processing, logistics and information technology.

The interns will be assigned projects and be exposed to programmes to develop their leadership skills.

According to Seprod CEO Richard Pandohie, “Students from both local and international institutions have been serving short-term internships at Seprod for many years, but the decision to extend the programme to one-year placements, in which each participant will have the opportunity to complete rotations throughout various companies in the Group, is a direct response to the increasing difficulties that young graduates are facing in finding jobs, a situation that sees many of them resorting to migration to find opportunities.”

In welcoming the interns, Pandohie expressed the company’s delight in supporting their career growth and aspirations and in providing them with an opportunity to gain valuable work experience and hone their leadership skills.

He urged the participants to seek to make a difference wherever they are placed; to not accept the status quo but to be positively disruptive and to be part of the force driving Seprod and Jamaica to a greater level of performance.