When a Foundation Partners with an Industry Leader
Berger Paints Bangladesh is not simply a paint company — it is one of the country’s most recognisable consumer brands, a major employer, and a company that has invested in building a structured sales and distribution network reaching across urban and rural Bangladesh. When the IGMIS Foundation arranged a free training session in collaboration with Berger, it brought its youth participants into contact with exactly the kind of professional environment they would need to understand in order to build successful careers in consumer goods, sales, and brand management.
The Training Content and Its Value
Training sessions run in partnership with established corporates like Berger typically cover a range of practically grounded topics: understanding how national brands structure their sales and distribution operations, how to navigate the relationship between a product supplier and a retail network, how to present products professionally to trade customers, and how to develop the interpersonal and communication skills that distinguish a good sales professional from an average one.
For young people who have never worked in a corporate environment — and for many IGMIS Foundation beneficiaries, this is their first structured exposure to one — these are not abstract lessons. They are practical tools.
The IGMIS Model: Partnerships That Open Doors
The Berger collaboration exemplifies the IGMIS Foundation’s broader strategy for youth training: rather than trying to replicate what corporations already do well on their own, the Foundation acts as a convener and bridge-builder. It identifies young people who lack access to professional networks, and it creates structured occasions for those young people to interact with institutions that can give them a clear sense of what working life looks and feels like.
A young person who completes a Berger training session at the IGMIS Foundation has something tangible to put on a CV — and, more importantly, they have a clearer picture of the career landscape they are trying to enter. In a country where, as the ILO has noted, the mismatch between academic training and market skills is a central driver of youth unemployment, this kind of bridging work is invaluable.
The fact that the session is free removes the final barrier. No participant has to weigh the cost of attendance against food or transport. The Foundation absorbs that cost so the participant can focus entirely on learning.
