First PNG national to make Heineken’s Asia Pacific Graduate Program (APGP)
Twenty-four year (24) old Simanibu Waram, of Madang and Morobe heritage, has made his mark by being the first Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islander to make it into HEINEKEN’s Asia Pacific Graduate Program (APGP).
HEINEKEN’s APGP is graduate program that helps young people, fresh out of a tertiary institution to start their career both professionally and personally. It is designed for persons interested in a long term career with HEINEKEN Asia Pacific – of which SP Brewery is a part of.
Mr Waram recently completed his 18 months training with SP Brewery’s (SPB) Graduate Development Program (GDP) mid this year. He applied for the APGP last year and his application was successful in October 2019. In January 2020, he travelled to Singapore to sit for an interview, which he described as a “life changing experience”.
The APGP Regional Assessment Centre interviews are very tense. The panel comprises of Managers from the different brewery functions across Asia Pacific. It can get quite intense for the applicants.
– Lucina Tadabe, SPB Training & Development Manager
Reflecting on his personal experience, Mr Waram said the interview process was both challenging and competitive.
The pool of people that came from across Asia was amazing. I got to meet intelligent young people, and had a brief opportunity to engage with them through team work, during the interview process.
There were four stages of the interview process and there was one part where I thought I messed up but I was honest to advise the panel of assessors that I wasn’t able to complete the task.
– Simanibu Waram
From the two PNG applicants, Mr Waram made the cut, making him the first Papua New Guinean and Pacific Islander to get in to HEINEKEN’s Asia Pacific Graduate Program since its inception in 2016.
Asked what this means to him, Mr Waram, although humbled, expressed how elated he is about being selected.
I set myself a goal to get into the program when I first found out about it, when I joined SP Brewery. I felt that I didn’t do well in one part of the interview but I am definitely excited and looking forward to the next two years of my career.
My life’s ambition is to be an inspiration to others, to bring out the best in themselves. Getting into HEINEKEN’s APGP is testament that nothing is impossible if you put in the work to better yourself and find the humility to accept your flaws, learn from them and keep moving forward.
My success thus far is a result of my relentless pursuit to be better than myself yesterday and holding myself accountable to a higher standard in everything I do and to not compete with those around me but only with the man in the mirror.
– Mr Warram
Human Resource Manager, Momo Vere, said:
HEINEKEN is all about people development. As a HEINEKEN operating company, we, at SP BREWERY, are proud of this achievement as it is a testament of the intellectual minds we have in PNG.
