Learn to lead your life, first steps and ROCK YOUR LIFE!
The ‘Learn to Lead Your Life’ project was aimed at secondary school pupils and combined coaching approaches with a method tailored to the problems faced by young people in the post-school phase.
The aim was to provide young people, over a period of at least three years, with an individualised yet institutionalised framework for discussion and counselling, within which they could receive career guidance, strategic support in this regard, assistance and advice. The focus was on a systematic analysis of their own skills – which they were often unaware of – as well as on developing the ability to act independently and take the initiative.
Building on the experiences of ‘Learn to lead your life’, the Foundation launched the ‘ersteschritte’ project from late 2007 to autumn 2010. Together with the Education Office of the Hamburg Adult Education Centre, and in cooperation with socially committed Hamburg-based companies, the Foundation used this project to help improve the training opportunities for disadvantaged young adults. In addition to providing practical support to young people in Hamburg with poor secondary school qualifications or none at all, the project focused on sparking a debate about corporate responsibility towards this target group.
The young people involved were aged between 16 and 25 and came mainly from BVJ classes, Hamburg job centres or other social initiatives in Hamburg. The partner companies were primarily small and medium-sized enterprises, craft businesses and retailers.
Structure of ‘First Steps’
The ‘ersteschritte’ project sought to integrate young people into the open labour market through training grants provided by committed Hamburg-based companies. These training grants took the form of: short-term work experience placements (approx. 2–4 weeks), long-term training placements (approx. 2–4 months) or mentoring schemes with volunteers (since January 2009).
The main focus of the mentoring schemes was on supporting the job application process, helping to address educational gaps, assisting with day-to-day dealings with public authorities, boosting self-confidence and building a relationship of trust with the young people.
Results
With the help of 102 Hamburg-based companies, ersteschritte has supported a total of 69 young people on their journey from school to work through training grants and job placement. This took the form of work placements, participation in ‘hamet Tests’ and professional career guidance coaching, as well as mentoring and the provision of apprenticeship places.
Ersteschritte was supported by the CDU’s Association for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, in particular by Mr Lamprecht, Managing Partner of Roßbach Automobile GmbH. The H.D. Bartels Foundation provided partial funding for the project; without this, the project could not have been carried out in this way.
‘Ersteschritte’ was only able to operate with the help of dedicated teachers, other social initiatives and volunteer mentors!
Initiate discussions
In order to effectively share the lessons learnt from this project and integrate it into existing supra-regional structures, the Hamburger Stiftung für Wirtschaftsethik supported student volunteers in October 2010 in setting up ROCK YOUR LIFE! Hamburg e.V.
In addition to manpower, premises and financial resources, the foundation also provided access to its existing contacts and expertise. The ROCK YOUR LIFE! concept originated in Friedrichshafen, and the gGmbH was founded in 2009. The aim is to build bridges through mentoring relationships between university students and secondary school pupils – bringing together people from very different educational backgrounds – in order to help narrow the gap in educational inequality in Germany.
ROCK YOUR LIFE! receives financial and practical support from committed companies. With the support of the gGmbH, committed students have already set up independent associations at numerous German university locations. In this way, the dialogue initiated by the ‘ersteschritte’ project on topics such as transition management and raising awareness amongst companies regarding educational opportunities continues.