4700 students asked over 500 questions in the fifth edition of the #YouthEmpowered program

98 mentors from the Coca-Cola System in Bulgaria have spent 627 hours volunteering during the year

Specialists from the business and teachers answered over 500 questions asked by young people as part of the #YouthEmpowered program in 2021. 98 experts from the Coca-Cola System in Bulgaria and teachers from over 60 school shared their knowledge and expertise with students from all across the country. For a second year the program took place in a digital format to continue supporting the personal development and employability of youth.

This year, a total of 4 709 young people aged 16-26 were trained under the program, and their mentors spent 627 hours in which they shared their experiences and the subtleties of developing a successful career in the areas of sales, finance, business planning, project management and others.

In 2021, for the first time, the program also encouraged the peer-to-peer content creation with a focus on personal development. This happened during the first #YouthEmpowered-supported author's podcast of Yuliyan Karadzhov "From A to Z" - part of the youth media platform Teen Station. The focus of the episodes of "From A to Z" is on personal development, the role of mentors that a person encounters in life, the intrinsic motivation for learning and development and the efforts that contribute to individual progress.

„We believe that business has the most important answers for young people’s careers and future development. In 2021 we kept fostering the sharing of experience and closing the distance between education and business so that we could keep contributing to a better career start for youth in the country. We are proud that dozens of experts from the Coca-Cola System in Bulgaria took part in specialized seminars which will facilitate young people’s smooth entry into the labor market after they compete their education, as well as their successful realization in the country afterwards“, shared Jacklin Tzocheva - Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Director in Coca-Cola HBC Bulgaria.

Since it was first created in 2017, over 16 000 young people from the whole country participated in trainings to improve their employability within the #YouthEmpowered program.  It aims to support the development of young people and their full preparation for starting a career and successful professional realization. The program is implemented in partnership with Junior Achievement Bulgaria, Teach for Bulgaria, SoftUni Digital and Teen Station.