Strong partnerships achieve big results - CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa -
CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa » Strong partnerships achieve big results
Strong partnerships achieve big results
In 2004 I joined Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JA-YE) which is Europe’s largest non-governmental organization in the field of enterprise education for young people. It offers training to more than 2.2 million students in 40 European countries helping them to develop their entrepreneurial skills. I can’t think of a more interesting field to be working in. As a Romanian and as a citizen of Europe I am convinced that entrepreneurship and education are top priority.

Our enterprise and economic education programs are designed for young people ages 6-25. Our programs are implemented through partnerships between local businesses and schools. That is why I have long lasting experiences in working with corporations. Among our project partners are Citigroup, GE, Bata, ORACLE and Hewlett-Packard (HP).

We started working with HP in the mid nineties and our partnerships focuses especially on projects around enterprise education programs in schools and special events for students. Today we are working in 28 countries. Joint activities with HP have included support for enterprise education programs and special events through cash and equipment donations, as well as the participation of HP employees as volunteers in local JA-YE programs. At the European level, HP recently supported the pan-European survey on youth attitudes to entrepreneurship (Enterprise 2010-The Next Generation) and supported e-learning events like the HP European Business Challenge. HP provided leadership at the board of JA-YE in many countries as well as on a European level.

Our recent project is the “Responsible Business Competition”, which is open for students in the JA-YE Company Programme at secondary schools. The HP Responsible Business Award aims at encouraging students to take this responsibility into consideration when they are building their enterprises. This year’s winners will be announced in July during the JA-YE Europe Company of the Year Competition, which will take place in Berlin.

We are grateful to HP for its commitment to educating youth around the world on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and good business practice. Initiatives like this competition are highly relevant and send an important and positive message to young people about what modern business is all about. More than 2000 young people got their certificate in Responsible Business so far. It is indeed a great experience to work with HP on this project. The project is well received and it does make a difference. It sensitizes young people to integrate responsible business conduct in their mini-company.

Having worked with numerous corporations and other local entities I can conclude that such partnerships are advantageous. They help to address social issues on a larger scale. NGOs and businesses bring in different highly valuable skills and competencies which complement each other and create a strong basement. I am interested in hearing similar experiences and lessons learnt from you.

Diana Filip, Development and Marketing Director; JA-YE Europe
Posted 05-30-2007 6:00 AM by BlogArchive
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