The Office of Career Services organised an industrial visit to Unilever for 30 department of Chemistry students on March 3, 2020.

The core mandate of the UoN Career Office is to produce holistic graduates prepared for entry into the workforce and ready to become entrepreneurs. To achieve this vision, the Career Office regularly plans for students’ industrial site visits to potential employers and industry partners and this includes government institutions and bodies. The aim of the industrial visits is to provide an insight regarding the internal working processes of institutions and companies and offer an opportunity for students to interact with industries to know more about the real work environment and how businesses are transacted in the respective companies or institutions.

Charles Irungu Kimiti, the Head of Engineering and Projects at Unilever led the Unilever team to welcome the UoN team for the industrial visit. Charles, an alumnus of UoN from the School of Engineering who studied BSc. In Manufacturing Engineering indicated that he welcomed the industrial visit to give back to his Alma Matter and help mentor UoN students as they identify the career paths they would like to follow. Charles encouraged the students to be open-minded, agile, problem solvers, with a positive attitude and ability and willingness to learn.

Brian Amani, the Employer Brand Executive who started off as an intern at Unilever and an alumnus of UoN (BSC. Civil engineering) welcomed the students and made a brief presentation on Unilever’s core business and the opportunity students have to join Unilever to kick off their career paths. Unilever was founded in 18185 and has been a leadership factory for over 100 years.

Kevin Kevin Oywa, the Production Manager in the Personal Care Factory at Unilever East Africa and also an alumnus of UoN (Bsc. Industrial Chemistry) took lead in taking the students round the personal care factory for them to learn the process of production. Kevin encouraged the students to embrace the culture of seeking discomfort and to expand their minds to achieve much more in their careers. “For you to grow in your career, avoiding the comfort zone and seeking discomfort is inevitable”, said Kevin.

The industrial visit opportunity exposed students to the opportunities Unilever has to offer and students were encouraged to apply for the opportunities; the Unilever Leadership Internship Program (ULIP) which is open for students (3&4^th year) to apply every quarter and the Unilever Future Leaders Program (UFLP) that runs for 3 years and is a Management Trainee Program. The UFLP program targets final year students not over than 26 years of age with at least an upper second in their degree.

The students were accompanied by Mr. Johnson Kinyua, Director Carerr Services, Dr. Solomon Derese, Lecturer, Department of Chemistry and Naomi Nyaboga, Career Chief Information Officer in the Office of Career Services.

The Career Office applauds Unilever for this continued partnership in exposing students to industry processes and looks forward to more students gaining from this exposure and landing themselves opportunities with Unilever.