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A Vibrant Future - Why ANSA McAL is investing in youth
When it comes to youth changemaking, in the Caribbean region the ANSA McAL Group of Companies is purposefully prioritizing investing with purpose in youth within its Philanthropic contributions.
The emphasis on youth empowerment is consistent with the Group’s vision for sustainable possibilities for people everywhere. In areas that include the arts, education, sports, professional and personal development, and entertainment, the ANSA McAL Group has persistently been a prominent agent and advocate of youth changemakers. But it is not just youth, the Group's views on development through innovation and future-proofing, have positioned the Group as a changemaker across its operations.
The Champions Development Programme and iLead Internship Programme are two of the most recent initiatives that bear the characteristic ANSA McAL Group stamp.
The Champions Programme
With a sustainability focus, since its inception in 2015, the Champions Programme, is designed around a 24-month rotation, and structured to optimize professional exposure, deepen technical expertise and cultivate leadership competence for selected university graduates. Each enthusiastic intake is expected to make a mark from the first day of employment.
It’s a “talent pipeline,” says Sarah Inglefield, Head of Culture and Communications at ANSA McAL. “The Champions Development Programme aims to convert our region’s most ambitious and high-performing graduates into our future executives.” In 2023 the Group celebrated the 6th annual intake of graduates, and among them are three female graduates from Guyana where the 2022/2023 programme was launched.
Aligned to the Group’s sustainability agenda and its commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Champions delivers well on Goal 8 which promotes inclusive and sustainable economic growth along with full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Through Champions, ANSA McAL is systematizing sustainability to shape its own succession planning, and at the same time connecting youth talent to nationbuilding. These ideals should come as no surprise given the ambitious standards that the Group has set, sustained, and met since the Company was founded in 1881.
The iLead Internship Programme
Where the Champions Development looks outward for talent identification and assimilation, the iLead Internship Programme, previously known as the iLead Developmental Workshop, looks inward for talent retention and optimization. True to their motto, ‘Together We Are Family,’ ANSA McAL Group is instinctually in touch with the generational talent that already exists within their organization. 2023 marked a decade since ANSA McAL Group landed its first iLead Development Workshop.
The iLead summer internship serves the Group’s employees’ family members pursuing higher education, and strategically places interns in those areas of the operations that align with their field of study. There, interns gain firsthand experience and knowledge to enable their personal and professional growth.
The entry-level projects available to interns allow for the honing and evolution of skills needed for the various diverse set of industries across the Group. Additionally, the structured interaction with leadership, coupled with skills building in critical areas of resumé building and interview mastery, equip interns for an easier transition from university life to the corporate world. Over the last five years alone, between 2018 and 2023, 260 internships were offered throughout the Group.
The Heroes Development Programme
Another influential move for ANSA McAL is its investment in the Heroes Foundation, Heroes Development Programme (HDP). Through this 3-year partnership, ANSA McAL is supporting the Heroes Foundation in their efforts to deliver projectbased learning for youth participants, along with an emphasis on development, training, and career planning. Sarah Inglefield described the partnership with the Heroes Foundation as “in direct alignment with some of our Sustainability Business Priorities.”
As part of its awareness of sustainable skills, the HDP emphasizes guiding participants to enhance intangible skills of self-discovery, interpersonal communication, cultural sensitivity, and leadership. The current iteration of the HDP supports 15 young individuals – 14 of whom are from Trinidad and Tobago and one from Venezuela. Inglefield notes that the facilitation of migrant activities during the programme “allow[s] migrant youth to learn Trinbagonian culture” and that “Migrant participants in HDP have also gone on to work with the ANSA McAL group in the past.”
ANSA welcomes Heroes’ mixed-method approach which encourages diversity within the programme. Instruction is delivered to a cross-section of secondary school students in Forms 1-3 and migrant youth aged 11-17 years from diverse backgrounds that include disabilities, differing socio-economic statuses, cultural and ethnic groups, and geographies. According to Heroes CEO, Lawrence Arjoon “Barriers to participation such as transportation, language, or physical accessibility have also been identified and resolved as part of the overall drive toward ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion is maintained.”
HDP’s creative use of technology to deliver its HDP programme is quite aligned to the Group’s tech bias. HDP uses the platform WebPal for example, in virtual interactions such as team-building activities and crosscultural sharing to address critical issues such as equality, violence, and environmental sustainability. Along the way, participants retain the programme’s emphasis on creating a fun environment for cultural exchange.
At the end of 2023, the ANSA McAL Team had the opportunity to interact with the 15 students at Marabella South Secondary School with the Heroes Foundation for the organisation’s League Learning experience. Joined by their Principal and teachers, Sarah Inglefield and Natalie Bibby, Corporate Sustainability Specialist delved into a meaningful session focused on career development. Its moments like these that allow the positive power of mentorship to resonate and impact the shaping of future leaders. ANSA McAL hosted the Heroes Foundation end of year awards for year 2 of the 3-year Heroes Development Programme for the 15 students, their sponsor teachers, and parents at the ANSA McAL Headquarters at TATIL Building. Frances Bain-Cumberbatch, Chief Legal and External Affairs Officer delivered the remarks on behalf of ANSA McAL and encouraged the students to believe in themselves and strive to be all that they can be. Testimonials from the students and one of the parents let everyone present know how impactful the programme has been. They shared that the programme has enabled the students to become more outgoing and confident to share their ideas, while learning valuable life lessons and planning for their bright futures.
If it was not immediately obvious through the various opportunities for youth, education is understood by the Group as a key component of youth and societal development. Specifically, Inglefield explains that “The ANSA McAL Group is committed to our investment in youth because we recognize that we cannot succeed as a society, in business or in our communities without their active inclusion.” Youth investment is one way in how the Group sees its future viability as one of the leading regional enterprises. With a workforce of over 6500 people across seven countries, ANSA McAL understands that these investments will pay off in a more capable and work-ready talent base. Between 2022 and 2023, the ANSA McAL Group invested more than one million dollars (TTD) in schools and education across the Caribbean region.
Supporting Youth Leadership
The ANSA McAL Group was proud to support and partially sponsor Khaleem Ali to attend the 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2023.
A graduate of the University of the West Indies and pursuing a Legal Education Certificate at the Hugh Wooding Law School, Khaleem, (24 years) had opportunities to engage in training, interact with world leaders and amplify the voice of the Caribbean in decision making processes, particularly around the issue of Human Rights.
Sarah Inglefield, stated, “This sponsorship reflects our own mission of supporting young talent as we strive to encourage youth leadership and the attributes of hard work. Khaleem’s upcoming contribution in Geneva from a Caribbean platform should not go unnoticed. He is a brilliant young man with a bright future, and we are extremely proud to support his endeavours”.
The UN Human Rights Council is the leading UN entity on human rights and represents the world’s commitment to the promotion and protection of the full range of human rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Leveraging Technology and Sports
Forerunners to the contemporary Champions Development, iLead Internship, and the Heroes Foundation programmes are other youth-focussed initiatives in arts and sports.
In October 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, ANSA McAL engaged with Caribbean artistry to encourage youth to embrace change and to be prepared for the 'new normal'. The ANSA McAL Foundation engaged powerfully and meaningfully with and for youth in its first global, virtual benefit concert, ‘One Caribbean. One Future. One Yard.’ The Foundation invested TT$1.5 million in the seminal event and the entire proceeds went towards the prevention of learning disruptions for students in the region. Some of the funds went to 1500 tablets which were donated to Ministries of Education in Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts & Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago. This was in addition to the Group’s assistance of 25 schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago with TT$500,000 worth of devices.
ANSA McAL is also an active sponsor of youth sports throughout the region; track and field athletes in St. Kitts and Trinidad & Tobago. Trinidad triathlete James Castagne-Hay was sponsored to represent T&T at the Youth Commonwealth Games in Tobago, and Rhonda Sanchez was sponsored to attend the North America Regional Powerlifting Championships this year. In St. Kitts CARIB Brewery sponsors Giant Malt and Ginseng Up Ambassadors in their sports endeavours including De’Cheynelle Thomas who qualified for the Carifta Games set for Grenada in 2024, and Avon Rouse who aspires to represent St. Kitts and Nevis in track and field at the next Olympic Games and World Championships. Inglefield says, “If Carib Brewery’s historical support of youth in sport is anything to go by, the Corporate Philanthropy footprint of ANSA McAL can guarantee further emphasis on youth health, wellbeing and development.”
Alignment with the Year of Youth, and Beyond
When asked about how the Group’s student sponsorship through the HDP and broader plans for youth development reflect the four pillars of the ‘Year of Youth’ theme; Energize, Engage, Empower, and Envision, Inglefield adds another: Enhance. “By helping participants discover their own potential, programmes like Champion, iLead and the HDP allow young people to enhance their abilities,” she says.
Inglefield applauds the HDP approach and how the projects diffuse shared-learning throughout schools and eventually extend outward into the wider community. HDP’s campaign against gender-based violence and child abuse has reached over 700,000 people online, and their Peer Counselling Groups educate schoolmates on healthy conflict resolution mechanisms. These two initiatives which also target migrant children, are well aligned to SDG16 –peace, justice, and strong institutions.
HDP also deploys Climate Champions for green infrastructure and reforestation activities in Paramin, a rural village located in the western region of the Northern Range in Trinidad. This academic year, participants also contributed to the annual youth coastal cleanup with the Caribbean Network for Integrated Rural Development (CNIRD) and International Coastal Clean Up (ICC), the Heroes of Energy Youth Forum at Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference, and BBC World Questions Youth Forum.
The almost exclusive form of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) assessment through goal setting provides one area for the evolution of the HDP. Currently, the programme’s emphasis on life, career, and sustainability skills, taught across twelve modules, involves self and emotional awareness, leading behaviour change projects, energy, climate and environmental sustainability, food sustainability, digital literacy, and equality and elimination of violence.
Assessing Impact of Change
In accordance with the strong appreciation of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) mechanisms that have no doubt contributed to the sustained success of ANSA McAL Group, when Inglefield was asked about the M&E assessment of the HDP, she noted that Personal Development and Career Development plans are recommended. These plans allows participants to track their own progress during the programme and beyond.
Inglefield states that the 80% HDP attendance and participation rate reflects “long-term, supported, and reliable opportunities, most of which are outside of the student’s normal environment, to explore self-identity and make connections.”
The challenge of measuring these intangible HDP psychosocial and twenty-first century skills are synergistic with the ANSA McAL Group leadership encoding; and HDP participants reflect the kind of community culture that ANSA McAL is itself deliberately shaping across the region.
The Champions Programme participants receive a set of Key Performance Indicators that they are assessed on, and there have been several high performers in the Group who have come out of the programme.
Toward a Future of Changemakers
On the horizon for the Group and its commitment to youth development is an expansion of the strategic partnership with the Heroes Foundation. This is intended to allow for more students from schools nationwide, to benefit from the Heroes Development Programme.
The Group is also in the process of partnering with an NGO spearheading online tutoring for Caribbean students. These two partnerships signify ANSA McAL's commitment to education and sustainability, utilizing technology to empower those in society who stand to benefit the most. The Group anticipates the positive impact this collaboration will have on fostering educational opportunities and technological advancement in the Caribbean.
